PEI

Homeowner in rural P.E.I. wants provincial action to get her neighbour's yard cleaned up

A woman in rural Prince Edward Island is frustrated by the lack of government response to her complaints about garbage on her neighbour's property. The official in charge of unsightly properties won't comment on her case, but says they handle 80 to 120 complaints a year.

The province receives 80 to 120 complaints a year about unsightly properties

A woman in a pink jacket stands on a dirt road
Lisa Donovan moved to her home near the Hillsborough River three years ago. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

A woman in an unincorporated area near Fort Augustus, P.E.I., has made numerous unsightly property complaints against her neighbour who has camper trailers filled with trash on his property. 

There was an unsightly property order posted on the lot in May 2022, and truckloads of materials were taken away. 

But Lisa Donovan said more needs to be done.

"It isn't just like I don't like the aesthetics of how he decorates his house, or that he doesn't cut his grass. Those are minor little things," Donovan said. 

"It's the trailers, and deep freezes, and old lawnmowers, and the house is just packed full of garbage."

Two old campers with items covered with tarps out front of a white mobile home with a crooked porch leaning against it.
The property, photographed earlier this month, is across the road from the Hillsborough River. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

Donovan adds: "I don't want to embarrass him, [and] I don't want to seem like I'm picking on him or his place. It's not about that. It's about the government's inability — or just simply not wanting — to address the situation that's happening there."

She said she has sent many emails and spoken to managers and supervisors at the department that handles unsightly-property complaints, as well as to the deputy minister and minister. 

"Nobody will give me answers. The only thing I've gotten from them is 'He's a private citizen' and I have no right to know anything about him," Donovan said.

"I don't want to know anything about him. I am concerned about the land and what the… garbage on the land is doing to the environment."

Eco-sensitive area

Donovan said she's particularly concerned because of the wildlife in what she calls an "eco-sensitive" area, given its proximity to the Hillsborough River. 

She's calling for the province to assess whether the items pose an environmental hazard in their current state and position.

"There's two trailers, there's a deep freeze, there's old lawnmowers — gosh knows what's in there," she said, pointing out that something could leak into the ground and people in the area rely on wells for their water. "Is it seeping into our properties?" 

A trailer with lots of debris and mess around it.
This is what the yard looked like before an unsightly property order was posted on the lot in May 2022, and truckloads of materials were taken away with help from the provincial government. (Submitted by Lisa Donovan)

Of her neighbour, she said: "He seems to have walked away from it. So whose responsibility is it to clean up the environmental mess that's been left behind?"

CBC News contacted the property owner, Kendal MacSweyn, who says he agrees his neighbours had a valid complaint in 2022, when the order was issued, and the property did need a clean-up. 

He said he never intended for the property to get into the state that it was in, but he got busy and "life got in the way."

MacSweyn added that he appreciated the help from the province in cleaning it up last year. 

Clean-up orders

Jon MacDonald, chief building official for the P.E.I. Department of Housing, Land and Communities, handles complaints under the Unsightly Property Act.

Under the act, an unsightly premise is described as property "upon which there is litter, derelict motor vehicles or parts thereof or dilapidated or unsightly buildings, structures or parts thereof, which causes the real property or any part thereof to look unsightly."

We do investigate all of them. It becomes very apparent sometimes when we're being used as, I'll say, a tool in a fence war.— Jon MacDonald

MacDonald said he can't discuss specific cases, but his department receives 80 to 120 complaints a year, including reports of old cars, derelict homes, abandoned homes and garbage.

"We do investigate all of them. It becomes very apparent sometimes when we're being used as, I'll say, a tool in a fence war or whatever," he said. 

MacDonald said 50 to 60 per cent of the complaints involve neighbours who just don't get along. 

A man with a shirt with a PEI logo stands in front of a field
Jon MacDonald is chief building official for the Department of Housing, Land and Communities. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

"Hopefully the act accomplishes fairness for both parties, [so] that we can clean up properties that may be in disrepair, and offer some satisfaction for neighbouring properties," he said.

"We don't have the ability to evict someone, or find them housing. So it can become very complicated very quickly."

MacDonald said the department does have the ability to place a clean-up order on a property with whatever conditions are needed, including tearing down a building in the most serious cases. 

Range of reactions

He said they get a range of reactions when they issue an order. 

"Sometimes people are very, very receptive to have us come in, and willing. Other times not so much. We do deal with quite a variety of people," he said. 

A drone view of a lot with some old campers and tarps.
A drone view of the property in December 2023. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

MacDonald said the department can physically go in and clean up a property, but that happens only in extreme situations.

"It does take quite a bit of time, and we always have to be cautious of the legal rights that property owners have, outside of the Unsightly Property Act," he said. "Typically, provincially funded clean-ups range between six and 10 properties a year."

MacDonald said there are also situations where it's difficult to identify who owns land that needs to be cleaned up.

He said there has been an increase in complaints since post-tropical storm Fiona. 

"We had a lot of buildings and whatnot that came down, so it definitely upped the volume a little bit," he said. "The worst-case scenario that we would have would be, I'll say, the typical rural abandoned home on P.E.I. No one knows the ownership, no one knows when it was last occupied."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nancy Russell is a reporter at CBC Prince Edward Island. She has also worked as a reporter and producer with CBC in Whitehorse, Winnipeg, and Toronto. She can be reached at Nancy.Russell@cbc.ca