What are my legal options when a By Law officer comes to my door?

[Sassygirl]

Hi everyone! I am just wondering if anyone has experience with a By Law officer coming to their daycare? My neighbours on the one side of us are... to put it mildly... something else! I have called animal control on them and we have gone over there repeatedly to ask them to keep their noise level down. It seems now, we have started a war. There is all kinds of unacceptable behaviour happening, such as them littering on our lawn, etc. Today, when I am well within my legal limits of having 5 kiddos plus my own son (all toddlers between 11-15 months old) I get a knock at my door from a By Law officer during naptime.
I was up having a "rest" myself LOL and didn't answer the door, especially when I saw who it was. I was floored. Nothing was left so I have a feeling that they will be back.
Anyone know what my legal options are? Do I have to open the door? What do I need to say except explain that I am well within my legal limits? I am quite annoyed by these neighbours to say the least and if they are calling By Law officers on me without cause they are going to have a huge problem on their hands.
Thanks in advance!

[jazmic]

The simplest way to take care of this is to open the door if they come back. You don't know what it is that they were coming to talk to you about. It might not even have anything to do with your daycare. And besides, you're within your legal limits so if that's what they're coming about, then you've done nothing wrong. You could use the opportunity to explain the "war" so they know what they're dealing with if they get another call from your neighbours. Good luck.

[Sassygirl]

Thanks. That is my plan. I called the lady on the card and got her voicemail so left a message. I am fuming! I have no plan to ever go over my legal limit. Most days I am at 3-4 plus my own son depending on if I have part-timers/on call kiddos that day.
I wonder if they are just on a crackdown as there are 3 other providers on my street one of whom I know is WAY over her 5 dck. I have a gut feeling that its my neighbour who called though.

[Crayola kiddies]

Not sure but is daycare under bylaw jurisdiction ? I would think daycare would be more csa. Bylaw is if you have too many dogs or your making too much noise after 11 pm or you put up a structure that is not allowed without preapproval... That type of thing

[mimi]

I had one of those neighbors. Thank God they are gone. They would do a lot of things to try to irritate us and our best solution was to ignore them and if they crossed a legal line with us then we called the police on their non-emergency number. We never interacted with them as they were bullies and I suggest you do the same as interactions with nasty neighbors can go bad very quickly.
That said, I agree with Crayola as to the bylaw officer's jurisdiction. They could be calling about your fence or grass that hasn't been mowed or if you happened to have an innocuous weed growing in your garden.
Please let us know what the visit was about. You have definitely peaked my curiosity.

[Sandbox Sally]

I think the DNA is under jurisdiction of the Board of Education, isn't it?

[Momof4]

I researched bylaws years ago when I started out. I just googled london.ca and got all of it right there online. Try it with your city and research tonight.

I had a smoking neighbour and to make a long story short after trying everything I finally called the police. It sounds a lot like your situation but he called CAS and told them he wanted them to tell me he reported me. He was being petty and vindictive since he was in the wrong, I did nothing wrong.

Anyway, I let them in, went through the whole process and now I have a good record on file with them.

[momofnerds]

the bylaw officers have nothing to do with home daycares (I have a parent who is one) they mostly go on complaints like dogs, noise, home inspections, pool inspections. So you have nothing to worry about. They really are nice people to work with. Make sure you get their name and if they have a paper as to why they are there (paper trail)

[eoinsmom]

In Calgary I seem to recall reading somewhere that bylaw can be called if a home business is causing traffic issues on a residential street....not positive but that is the only thing I can see being related to a home daycare.

[Sassygirl]

She said in not so many words that it was my neighbour. She asked me if I was the homeowner and my name and the ages of my own children. I have 4 aged 14, 12, 10 and 15 months. She said that there was a complaint about my daycare and concern about my numbers. I said that I am well aware of my legal limits and that I follow them. She asked me how many daycare kids I have and I said my 3 full time and various part timers but most days its 3 plus my own son. She said that since I am well aware of the laws and rules that she will not proceed with the complaint and will close all her file on me. I asked again if it was my neighbour that called and she kind of danced around it so I know it was... I mentioned how we have had ongoing issues with numerous things and that they should be prepared to get calls on THEM from ME now. She laughed LOL so I think all is well.
After venting to a few people, I realized that these people are bullies and that by calling the City on THEM I was feeding into it. I wouldn't put it past them to call Childrens Aid on me which would be a nightmare. I am just going to ignore them and tell my kids to as well. So sad! I am just still so mortified that one of my daycare parents found the card and handed it to me!
My beer chilling is calling me... What an afternoon! Thanks for all the advice ladies :-)

[mimi]

Glad to hear all is well. Yes, please ignore your neighbors. In general, nobody likes to be ignored so if you make a point of avoidance and no eye contact (it is hard because you are mad) this will drive them nuts. They will also see that they are not getting a reaction from you which is what bully's thrive on. Hopefully, if you do this, they will get bored and will probably pick on someone else. Enjoy your beer.

[Momof4]

Don't let them bother you any more and yes, enjoy your drink! Mimi is right, the bullies don't have any power over you if you ignore them and don't let them get to you. It's terrible that they throw their junk over into your yard though. You need the CSI's to come and fingerprint the stuff, then call the police! I know, it isn't funny. I deal with it all the time. I'm picking up other people's garbage around my house all the time, so many people are pigs!

[Sandbox Sally]

Someone once told me that the best way to deal with a$$y neighbours is to be as nice as possible, because escalation is a nightmare. I took that advice with our new neighbours, and now we actually get along. It took a bit, and a lot of ignoring and biting my tongue, but it CAN work. Good luck.