The City of Windsor is reporting a decrease in the number of repeat offenders when it comes to dirty yard issues.
In 2020, the council approved the implementation of a repeat offender fee of $215 for property owners who fail to maintain their properties in accordance with city by-laws.
According to a report in the 2025 city budget, $110,940 in revenue was collected from the repeat offender fee in 2024 compared to $140,445 in 2023.
Craig Robertson, Manager of Licensing and Enforcement, says the numbers show that they're seeing a better compliance rate.
"This fine that was imposed onto repeat offenders was not to generate revenue; it was more to act as a deterrent," he says. "Over the years since it was implemented, we're five years into it, and we see that number is coming down."
Revenue was at $147,705 in 2022 and at $229,405 in 2021.
Robertson says he thinks the messaging is getting out there.
"If you're not maintaining your yard, you could be subject to penalties and cleanup costs. I think what we're doing is working, and hopefully that number just comes down as time goes on," he says.
Robertson says it's also helping to recover the cost of having to go out.
"We found we were constantly going out to the same homeowners, and we weren't recovering any of our costs to go back two or three times. So this fee allowed us to recover our costs," he says.
In 2024, the city received 12,000 dirty yard complaints, which included long grass, nuisance shrubs and landscaping, garbage and debris, or even household items left outdoors.
If a complaint is filed, bylaw officers will conduct a site inspection and issue an order to comply, giving the property owner seven days to bring their property up to bylaw standards.
If the property owner fails to comply with an order, the city has the ability to go in and conduct a clean-up with the expenses applied to the property tax bill.
