Residents shouldn’t have to keep calling 311 about the same property.

One issue I’ve heard repeatedly while knocking on doors is frustration with chronically neglected properties.

Residents call 311. The City gets involved. Eventually the property is brought back into compliance. Then, weeks or months later, the problem is back, and neighbours find themselves calling again.

In some cases, these are rental or investment properties owned by people who don’t live in the neighbourhood, or even in Windsor. If fines for failing to maintain a property simply become part of the cost of doing business, we need to increase that cost.

My proposal is straightforward: stronger consequences for chronic repeat offenders, and faster action to get neglected properties back into compliance.

Make repeat offences significantly more expensive

Windsor already has a repeat-offender fee for yard-maintenance enforcement. But if the same owner repeatedly allows a property to fall out of compliance, the financial consequence shouldn’t stay the same.

For chronic repeat offenders, the fines should go up significantly each time.

Owners would also remain responsible for the cost when the City has to arrange work on their property.

If an owner repeatedly treats fines for failing to maintain a property as a cost of doing business, let’s increase the cost of doing business.

Act faster

Stronger consequences are only part of the answer. We also need to get these problems resolved faster.

Under Windsor’s current process, property owners generally have seven days after a yard-maintenance notice is served to comply. When a notice is sent by mail, additional time can pass before it is considered served.

Why are we losing days to the mail?

If a bylaw officer is already standing at the property, has inspected it, and confirmed a violation, post the notice at the property and start the clock.

I would also ask City administration to look at reducing the current seven-day compliance period to 48 or 72 hours for repeat property-maintenance violations.

Stop starting over

There’s another problem with the way we deal with chronic properties: we keep starting over.

Once an owner has already been formally ordered to maintain a property, another violation within a defined period shouldn’t necessarily require neighbours and the City to go through the same process again.

Other municipalities have found ways to move more quickly when a property repeatedly falls out of compliance. Windsor should examine doing the same.

Get the problem fixed. Charge the owner for the work. Apply the higher fine.

Residents shouldn’t have to become the neighbourhood bylaw enforcement officers, repeatedly calling 311 about the same property.

Help people who genuinely need help

There is an important distinction here.

Sometimes a low-income senior, a person with a disability, or another owner-occupant genuinely needs help maintaining their home. That is very different from an absentee or investment-property owner who repeatedly fails to maintain a property.

Other municipalities have programs to help qualifying residents with outdoor property maintenance. I would like Windsor to explore a similar assistance program or community partnership for residents who genuinely need that support.

Help people who genuinely need help. But when property owners repeatedly refuse to comply, make the consequences stronger and act faster.

This proposal is part of my Safer, Stronger Neighbourhoods platform.