The Neglected Garden: A Modern Aesop's Fable Back in January I got a bill for $185 from the City of Toronto that looked kind of odd, so I called them to inquire about it. →[More:]The city employees told me the bill was for their having to come and clear the weeds from the front garden of Swan’s End last August, so I should go after the former owner and get her to pay it.

I called my lawyer’s office, and they told me to fax them the bill and they’d send it to Lei's lawyer’s with the request that it be paid. I heard nothing further.

Then yesterday I got another notice of an overdue bill from the City of Toronto for $196.12. Lei hadn’t paid it, and it is ever increasing. Originally, I’m told, it was only $150.

I called my lawyer’s assistant again, who said she had thought it was taken care of. She asked me to fax her the new bill, said she will send another request that it be paid, and if Lei doesn’t pay the bill by next week she’ll send it to the title insurance company. They will then either pay it or send me the money to pay it, and that will be the end of the matter for me. They’ll then pursue Lei for the money that she would then owe them, and it will escalate to a lawsuit if she still doesn't pay it.

I am very annoyed at having to be bothered with someone else’s unpaid bills, but at the same time I find it hilarious that Lei has wound up with a big bill out of sheer negligence and perhaps just plain stupidity.

The front garden of Swan's End is tiny. It's perhaps 9' x 8', and of that, about 5' x 4' is flagstones, so the weeds could only grow in the margin around the flagstones. I saw the weeds myself in August when my parents were in the city and wanted to see the house, so we drove by it. We saw a dense jungle of chest-high ragweed and pigweed. Tarzan could have been hiding out in there.

If Lei had pulled up weeds in several ten minute increments last summer, the weeds could have been kept under control and she would never even have gotten any notices from the city. The woman I spoke to at city services assured me that they send out about ten warning notices before they actually send out workers to mow down the weeds. If Lei had paid attention to any one of those notices and spent say, half an hour with some pruning shears and garbage bags, she would not have been billed for $150.

And I know she’s been busy and had to move twice before being settled in her condo this winter so maybe my first request just fell through the cracks, but she would have gotten the original $150 bill last fall two months before she moved, and she could have saved herself from being charged an extra $50. Maybe she thinks she can get away with not paying it. Heh. I wonder how big this bill is going to get before it gets paid and if she’ll wind up getting sued for it.

Meanwhile I'm planning a rose garden, and my neighbours love me because they've already gathered that unlike Lei, I actually care about making my place look nice.

It all sounds like a modern parable, doesn't it? It reminds me of a news item I heard years ago. A woman rented two movies and didn't return them. She ignored the video store's efforts to get her to return the videos, then a collection agency's notices, then notices from whatever government agency took over after the collection agency gave up. Then she was subpoenaed for a court date, and ignored that. A warrant was then issued for her arrest. And the kicker? They were Pauly Shore movies.