Case Description

This began in 2005 when the neighbour who lives on a lane behind my house put in a plan to build an extension to his property - lot line to lot line and needed to get the Committee of Adjustment to allow the variances. When it came before the CofA several neighbours turned up for the meeting and so the agent asked for an adjournment. It was granted. He then sent out letters to the neighbours telling them to support him or he would make their lives "hell". He then proceeded to block the right of way to their parking spots forcing a number of them to buy parking permits and park on the street. They have deeded rights of way over the lane on his property which he has blocked on a regular basis. When it finally did go to the CofA once again a number of neighbours wrote letters to the CofA and several turned up for the Committee meeting. The CofA decided not to allow the variances. At that point the agent of the owner (who lives in the property during the summer months)once again threatened all of us again by letting us know that he would never give up and that we would "pay". He then submitted another plan to the city with a slight variation and once again took this to the CofA. Once again the city decided not to grant him the variances and they instructed him to consult with his neighbours about an agreeable solution. He did not consult with us but rather sent another letter telling us he would be taking down a fence separating our properties. He also appealed to the OMB. The first OMB meeting took place in January 2008 and once again he arrived and then proceeded to ask for an adjournment on the basis that he didn't know we had a lawyer. He was granted the adjournment and despite a request by us for costs the OMB did not grant the costs.
We finally went to the OMB and spent two days where he represented himself, often not understanding the procedures and he had two hostile witnesses from the City Planning Office. The city also had legal representation and put the case that the building was not acceptable. The OMB turned down his application. At that point he removed part of the fence separating our property and all of our neighbour's fence. He promised her that he would replace her fence before he went south but it was a full year before he did so. In the meantime to protect our property and make it more secure we put a temporary barrier in place. This year he has once again gone before the CofA with a plan very similar to the last one and they turned him down. Since then he has been building some kind of structure. The building inspectors regularly go to see what he is doing and he claims he building a "retaining wall". He had fully removed the fence between our properties and threatened to kill two trees that he claims are on his side of the property but have been on our side of the fence since we moved in 4 years ago. This past week we came home to find a large rope attached to the tree with the rope running through our garden and then a huge anchor holding the rope in place and our garden gate forced open. We explicitly told him not to come onto our property but he did so while we were at work. We called the police but they said there was little they could do. They tried to caution him but he was not answering his door. We sent another email telling him that he is not to trespass on our property but when we arrived home last night we found that he had put up wooden hoarding against the rebar from our side again.

We are at our wits end and would like to take legal action but we are not sure what routes are open to us. We are sure that a number of the neighbours might also like to take action to have him clear the right of way so that they can use it. There is another neighbour and her house is also badly affected by all of this and he regularly blocks her access and has knocked her fence down on numerous occasions.

Is anyone interested in this case?