Couple Who Live on Golf Course Complain About Stray Balls and the Fix For Stray Balls

[Unassisted]

http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Stor...8-014/page.asp

Amending Fences


There’s a lot of ways one could describe their multi-million dollar dream home. Some would call it a palace, an oasis, or maybe even a little slice of heaven. The Sammut’s, a couple in Etobicoke, have a less than pleasant description - a Russian prison.

Their home in the Islington and Dundas area has been enveloped by a 7 metre high fence after a court order forced the Islington Golf Club to fix the problem of stray balls careening into the home on a regular, unsettling basis.

Their solution - the fence - has left them more than a little teed off.

“I didn't think it was possible,” Pauline Sammut said. “In Russia maybe. “We couldn't believe it. It looks like they're putting up a jail.”

Close to 2,000 golf balls have flown into the Sammuts' front and backyards over the course of their six-year battle with the course.

They've broken windows, dented their garage and even decapitated a statue.

A judge ruled that the club had to pay damages and prevent balls from hitting the house in the future. So up went the fence, and down went the couple’s already sagging morale.

“I think they're just being spiteful. That's all it is,” Pauline adds. “They are not trying to stop the balls, because my garage doors have been bombarded and they will still be bombarded.”

Still, not everyone agrees. "The golf course is most gracious as far as all the other neighbours are concerned," claimed Vera Kircheis, who lives in the area.

But isn't the ball problem interfering with her neighbour's home? "Ah, but I would never have built this house," she riposted.

The fence is to be completed this week, but the Sammuts say the fight is far from over.

They meet with their lawyer, the golf club's lawyer and a judge on Wednesday.

[TeamCasey]

So, the house was built after the golf course?

[RedFanAlways1966]

Originally Posted by TeamCasey

So, the house was built after the golf course?

My guess is yes.

What do the couple suggest to stop this problem??? I do not hear any solutions coming from them. As long as the fence is not on their property and meets all zoning ordinances, then all is legal. They started the suing thing and that led to this solution. Make your bed... lie in it.

Still... how does the golf course stop this problem of balls hitting their house w/out the fence? I will let the couple tell us. Oh... no suggestions from them. Imagine that.

[RANDY IN INDY]

Seems to me that if you build a house on a golf course, you might just have that problem. Maybe they should have built next to a badminton court.

[RedsBaron]

Originally Posted by RANDY IN CHAR NC

Seems to me that if you build a house on a golf course, you might just have that problem. Maybe they should have built next to a badminton court.

Yep. How can someone build a house on a golf course, and then be surprised or upset that golf balls land on the property?

[RFS62]

No kidding.

He'll probably move out by the airport and start complaining about the noise.

[REDREAD]

Why doesn't the family put up their own pretty screen/fence to hide the ugly fence if it's that huge of a deal? Or move?