Windsor, Ontario residents face $5000 fine if caught holding more than three garage sales per year

CBC News
Sep. 06, 2005

Garage sales fans in Leamington, near Windsor, Ont. have been warned.

Three's OK. Four isn't.

Officials in the southwestern Ontario town of 21,000 have introduced a bylaw prohibiting anyone from holding more than three garage sales per year.

Excessive noise and traffic have been blamed.

"We'll shut you down and we'll charge you," said Brian Sweet, Leamington's chief administrative officer. Fines could reach $5,000 for people who try to hawk their wares above the annual limit. They also face being shut down by police.

Resident Sandy Martinho held a garage sale at her home this weekend for the first time in five years. She wasn't convinced the bylaw was necessary. "I don't think they should go out and spend their time looking for these," Martinho said.

Leamington's Brian Sweet said garage sales were cropping up that really weren't garage sales. "The people would go out and buy stuff from other places and be re-selling it on their front yard as opposed to getting rid of all their own junk."

Aside from being a nuisance for neighbours, area businesses complained that recurring garage sales were hurting retailers' profits.

"If you start having more than three garage sales in a year, what you're really doing is you're running a business off your residential premises," said Sweet.

He said most residents shouldn't have a problem with the new bylaw.

"I've lived in my house for 13 years, I think we've had one garage sale the whole time," said Sweet.