It's election season. We go to the polls in about two weeks to choose a new territorial legislature.
Our MLA is retiring, so we have to figure out who we want to represent us. And unfortunately, we can't vote for Amy, because she's running on the other side of town.
We've been talking about the candidates and thinking about who would be best. This has been tough, because so far none of the candidates have shown any interest in actually talking to us. They seem to prefer shoving leaflets into the crack in our door. The other night Michael answered the door and came back with a handout: the gentleman had asked him to give us his propaganda but did not want to talk to us.
It's at least a little bit easier now, because Steve has talked to one of the candidates. Jeff Groenewegen is NOT getting any votes from this house.
As Steve was leaving for work this morning, he saw this:
That's our fence. And that's our lawn. And that's the neighbourhood mailbox. (This will be important later on.) Just past it, you can see our driveway. Oh, and that's a sign that someone put up on our property without asking us.
Steve called the number and got Mrs. Jeff on the phone.
STEVE: Hi. I was wondering if you could have someone come and take your propaganda off my lawn.
MRS. JEFF: What do you mean? A sign with his face on it?
STEVE: Just one of his signs.
MRS. JEFF: Okay. What's your address?
Steve provided our address, and they hung up on good terms. Then the phone rang.
STEVE: Hello?
MRS. JEFF: Hello, Steve?
STEVE: Yeeeesss?
MRS. JEFF: I was talking to Chris Johnston's people and they were having problems with people stealing signs. Someone will be by to pick up the sign.
STEVE: Okay.
They were still on good terms. However, the good will would not last long. The phone rang again.
JEFF: Yeah, I'm outside your house and there's no sign on your front lawn.
STEVE: No, not on my front lawn. It's on my side lawn.
JEFF: You don't own that.
STEVE: Oh, yes I do.
JEFF: You may take care of it, but you may not own it.
STEVE: Yes, I do.
JEFF: Do you have an easement with Canada Post?
STEVE: A what?
JEFF: An easement with Canada Post. I'm a realtor. I know these things.
STEVE: Oh yeah...so what you're telling me is I don't own that parcel of land?
JEFF: I don't know. I'm not saying anything about that. I'll move the sign.
Nice.
We have checked the documents that were filed with the land titles office, and have removed the sign from our property. However, we would like to thank Jeff for pointing out that we probably should have an agreement with Canada Post for their use of our property.
We would also like to let any candidates in this election know that if they want to put their propaganda on our property, they should ask first. We would appreciate it if they did not cause damage to our lawn by hammering sticks into it.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Election news
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6 comments:
Nice! He's obviously not trying to get your vote AND he's not trying to be a good neighbour. I wouldn't vote for him. Good story, Meg.
I always thought this was a form of littering. I mean, what political message are you getting across by sticking a picture on a stick in your lawn?
C'mon Meg, I'm wondering why the builder would build his fence 4ft shy of his land allowance. Without looking at the proper documents I'd have to say I'm with Jeff. If that IS your land, Canada Post should be paying you rent.
It's a good point and the reason we pulled out the legal documents last night. We hadn't thought about the placement of the mailbox before that. We do not have any kind of agreement with Canada Post, although we probably should.
The fence is around our side yard, which was used as a dog yard several owners ago. I don't know whether the fence or the mailbox was there first.
He needs to learn to equivocate in appropriate circumstances. This would be one such circumstance. He should have said "Sorry sir, and thank you for bringing this to my attention" instead of purporting to be an expert in land law. Now he looks like a condescending jerk and he's lost at least two votes.
Three, actually, because I live just a few doors up from Megan and I'm appalled by that story completely.
As for the legalities, you probably own right up to the edge of the sidewalk, but the dog owner people would have had to limit the fence to the allocated setback line (because the City generally reserves the right to rip up the first few feet of your lawn to widen sidewalks, install water pipes, etc., but you still own it) Canada Post probably has some complicated agreement with the City. (We don't really want to get me started about Canada Post so close to bedtime, do we?)
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