| This complaint letter to a politician is just one of many different types of complaint letters that can be written to deal with a wide variety of situations. Numerous other sample complaint letters are contained elsewhere on this website. The thing that makes this one stand out is it’s length. I almost always preach that a letter should be kept to one page if at all possible. This is one of those few exceptions where the letter needed to exceed one page in order to cover all of the relevant points. |
| (print Letter of Complaint on personal stationery) 955 Princeton Lane NW Sxxxxxxxxxx, MB R3B 2B2 July 12, 20xx Mr. Rob Jakes Alderman, River Hill District City Hall Building – Rm. 305 15 Center Place Ave. Sxxxxxxxxxx, MB R3B 2M5 Dear Alderman Jakes: RE: City of Sxxxxxxxxxx – Lack of Accountability Re: Encroachment Situation My name is Linda Peel. My husband Frank Estes and I have been living at 955 Pinceton Lane NW (River Hill) with our family for the past seventeen years. I am writing this letter to express my frustration and anger since all of ours efforts communicating with city officials to-date have not resulted in the resolution of what I believe should have been a relatively straightforward case. Since June 2, 20xx the waste and management department has been unable to collect the garbage from the back lane of our home due to a significant encroachment into that lane by the neighbour who lives directly behind us. We are also unable to access our backyard by vehicle. Formal complaints about the encroachment onto city property have been filed both by me and by Mr. Halston, the city of Sxxxxxxxxxx Waste Management Manager. (3-1-1 Reference # 725165.) On September 1, 20xx Bylaw Officer L. Browne (975-2590) issued a Warning Notice to 955 and 953 Princeton Lane NW to either remove the encroachments or obtain an encroachment agreement from the city. We, at 955 Princeton Lane NW fully cooperated and removed all required items by the September 20, 20xx deadline (Activity number 01-78000253). Our neighbours at 953 Princeton Lane chose not to comply with the removal notice and their encroachment into the back lane remains to this day. Instead, they applied for an encroachment exception approval. Alderman Jakes; on June 9, 20xx, I sent a letter to your office requesting your assistance in this matter. In reply, I was informed by your people that, although the City Properties Department was aware of the situation, due to the lack of enforcement action they had to wait for Bylaw Services to conclude their investigation into the encroachment application. Because of that situation, your people advised me that there was little your office could do at the time. After months of waiting, several complaint letters, and numerous follow-up phone calls; I was assured by bylaw officers that the encroachment application submitted by the owner of 953 Princeton Lane NW was being handled appropriately by the encroachment department. However, I learned that the encroachment department was apparently waiting for a real property report from the owner of 953 Princeton Lane NW, and that no further action would be taken without said report. Yet, the encroachment office did not inform Bylaw Services about the incomplete application, and Bylaw Services did not investigate whether the owner of 953 Princeton Lane had complied with the encroachment warning notice. I find the total lack of action and accountability by both of these departments disturbing, to say the least. On January 20, 20xx, as a last resort, I wrote a letter to John Frantzen, Director of Bylaw Services, that explained the situation in detail and expressed my frustration. It was my hope that Mr. Frantzen’s office would do something to expedite a resolution of this case. …. 2 |
| On February 15, 20xx Bylaw officer Ted Booth (xxx-132-4810) requested a witness statement from me. He advised me that the Bylaw Services office would apply for a court order, since our neighbour was not cooperating. On April 9, 20xx, I contacted Officer Booth and he told me that the file had been transferred to the encroachment office, and that this case was no longer his problem. On June 12, 20xx, I again followed-up with Officer Booth and he advised me that the encroachment office had not contacted him or updated him on this case. He said that the encroachment office may have already approved the encroachment application, but he didn’t know. I asked Officer Booth if he would please contact the encroachment office for a status report on the situation He appeared quite reluctant to act upon my request and seemed hesitant to pursue this matter with the encroachment office. Alderman Jakes; is my family not entitled to have the basic right to access our back yard by vehicle and to have proper garbage collection from the back lane, as do our neighbors? If not, are we not at least entitled to an explanation from City of Sxxxxxxxxxx? As a result of this situation, in April, 20xx, we had no choice but to request the waste management people to pick up our blue cart and garbage containers from the side street rather than from the back lane. Nevertheless, for six of the past seven weeks the blue cart and/or garbage were not collected. I am not surprised that this happened since our house is the only house west of Princeton Lane not to have the garbage picked up from the back lane. Consequently I had to call 311 six times to get the waste management people to come back to collect our garbage. How many times will I have to contact 311 again in the future? I find it very difficult to believe that after two entire years of waiting, we still don’t have an answer or decision from the City of Sxxxxxxxxxx on this matter. As a law-abiding taxpayer I find this degree of negligence and/or in indifference to be insulting and disrespectful, to say the least. Alderman Jakes; it has been more than one year since I first contacted your office about this matter. This ongoing unresolved situation has become a daily irritant in my life and I would deeply appreciate your assistance in concluding this matter. I sincerely request to meet with you so that we may discuss this situation further. I ask you to please contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx at your earliest convenience so that we can set up a meeting. Very sincerely, Linda Peel |