Address your missing address or get hit with a big number, city warns City hands out hundreds of fines for missing back-lane house numbers
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/10/2019 (2220 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The number of homeowners who’ve been fined this year for failing to display their house number in the back lane has dramatically increased from 2018.
A city spokeswoman said that 385 homeowners have been fined to date, more than four times as many as the 83 who were issued citations in all of 2018.
The Free Press requested the data after a Flora Avenue senior was fined $200 last month.
“I don’t think it’s fair. Why did they single me out?” said Lorna Doberstein. “I’m almost 80 years old and I shouldn’t have to deal with stuff like this. It’s hard enough to make ends meet. I pay good taxes. I don’t neglect my place.”
Doberstein said few of her neighbours have house numbers displayed so they are visible from the lane but she’s the only one who received a fine.
The bylaw has existed since 1976 and was incorporated into the Neighbourhood Livability bylaw, along with a dozen others, in 2008, the city said. The provision, the spokeswoman said, is to assist first responders, city staff and the public in locating a home.
From the Neigbourhood Liveability Bylaw
From Part 7, Addresses and building names:
83(3) Where a property is adjacent to a back lane, the number assigned to the building must be attached to the building or to a fence or accessory structure so as to be clearly visible from the back lane.
Click to read more of the city’s rules on house numbers, including size and colour.
PART 7: ADDRESSES AND BUILDING NAMES
Street address and name to be attached to building
83(1) Subject to this section, the owner of a principal building must ensure that the number assigned to and any name approved for the building under this Part is attached to the building or otherwise posted on the property so as to be clearly visible from the street on which it is located.
83(2) Where a principal building on a property is in a location that results in a building number or name not being clearly visible from the street, the number assigned to and name approved for the building must be both attached to the building and displayed in another form that is clearly visible from the street.
Where more than one principal building is located on a single property, the requirement that the numbers be displayed in another form that is clearly visible from the street may be met by displaying the range of building numbers on that property.
83(3) Where a property is adjacent to a back lane, the number assigned to the building must be attached to the building or to a fence or accessory structure so as to be clearly visible from the back lane.
83(4) Building numbers required to be attached or displayed by in this section must be at least 8 cm (3 inches) in height and of a colour that contrasts with the colour of the structure to which it is attached so as to be clearly visible.
83(5) The owner of a building must ensure that no other numbers or names are attached to the building that could be confused with the numbers assigned or names approved under this Part.
83(6) The owner of a building must ensure that the number assigned to a building under this Part is clearly visible from the street while the building is under construction.
The city’s policy is to first issue a warning to homeowners and provide them with time to rectify the situation. Fines are issued only if the homeowner ignores the warning, she said.
But Doberstein said she never received a warning.
And she said back lanes are too narrow for ambulances and fire trucks.
“I used to be a courier. We never went to the back. It was always to the front.”
The spokeswoman said the dramatic increase in the number of fines was the result of fewer individuals complying with the warning.
The city did not respond to a request for an interview with Winston Yee, the city’s manager of bylaw enforcement.
Councillors surveyed by the Free Press acknowledge that the bylaw provision on rear yard signs is obscure and most homeowners don’t know about it.
Jeff Browaty is the only current member of city council who was there when the provision was added to the bylaw in 2008. He has no recollection of it being debated at a committee meeting or at council.
“It certainly wasn’t well advertised if the addition occurred at that time,” he said. “I’ve been down many back lanes and don’t regularly see numbers posted. My office hasn’t received a single complaint about enforcement of this bylaw.”
Browaty said the city should suspend issuing any more and conduct a media campaign to inform property owners of the requirement.
“I don’t believe it’s fair to be enforcing this without having had a widespread information campaign and a generous window of time to allow people to comply,” he said.
Doberstein said she placed her house number on the chain-link fence in her back yard several years ago and hadn’t realized it had disappeared. She thinks it vanished when someone backed a vehicle into the fence at one point.
She described the fine as a “cash grab,” and has initiated an appeal but realizes her chances are slim. She said she was advised she’d have to submit copies of the insurance claim for the damaged fence and a police-report incident number — explaining that she didn’t report the damaged fence to police or file an insurance claim.
“I’ll probably lose but I’m going to appeal it anyway,” she said.
Coun. Ross Eadie, whose Mynarski ward includes Doberstein’s home, dismissed her suggestion the fine is a tax grab.
Eadie said enforcement of many provisions of the Neighbourhood Livability bylaw is often made as a result of a complaint stemming from a neighbour dispute but Doberstein said she gets along with her neighbours and doesn’t know who would complain to city hall about her.
Doberstein said she regrets going to the media to publicize her situation but is pleased that the story is a warning to other residents who also didn’t know about the bylaw
“It’s not going to help me but at least people will put a big cardboard sign up (in their rear yards) so they don’t get slapped with a big $200 fine like I am.”
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
