Richard complained to our office after he received a fine for $100 under the City of Terrace’s (the City) nuisance bylaw about a pile of dirt in his driveway. Richard sent a dispute notice to the City but was concerned that the City had not forwarded the notice to the Court because the notice was handwritten and not signed by Richard. We confirmed that Richard was correct, the city had not forwarded the dispute notice. Through the course of our investigation we determined that the Community Charter stipulated that handwritten notices were acceptable and that the City should have
forwarded the matter to the Court for a hearing.

In response to our investigation, Richard was reimbursed $100 and the City agreed to review its procedures regarding ticket disputes to ensure they comply with stated regulations.