You can be fined $780 for not maintaining your home in Mississauga
Published April 13, 2022 at 5:17 pm
Mississauga is coming hard at homeowners who have a lot of junk on their properties, especially those who refuse to clean up their act.
New trial measures proposed by the City of Mississauga will increase fines against repeat offenders as well as allow bylaw officers to take a proactive approach to enforcement. It will also force owners of derelict buildings to finish the project within a year.
Fines include $350 for properties that fail re-inspection and don’t comply with clean-up orders, as well as a $430 administrative fee when the City staff has to go in to clean up a property.
“Mississauga is a beautiful city and we want to keep it that way,” said Michael Foley, Acting Director, Enforcement. “Currently, we do not charge fees for repeated non-compliance and conduct proactive inspections when a health and safety risk is identified during a reactive inspection. We’re confident the new pilot program and proposed fees will provide stronger deterrents, enhance our responsiveness to by-law violations and help us achieve voluntary compliance.”
At present, City bylaw officers act mostly on complaints, mainly by residents, who are concerned about stockpiling of junk on neighbouring properties, or live near incomplete construction projects. However, an increasing number of complaints has changed the direction of the enforcement policy into, at this point, the three-year trial project.
From 2017 to 2021 Mississauga received almost 50,000 property standards complaints with almost 15,500 leading to enforcement action. These numbers are expected to rise with the proactive approach.
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Other areas of enforcement that will be beefed include the proper maintenance of drainage, a timeframe for the cleaning up of properties when a demolition occurs, and the uniform construction of hoarding and fencing.
Although additional staff is needed to take the proactive enforcement approach, a City report indicates the amount collected in anticipated fines will offset any new costs involved in the project.
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