A month-long yard sale is upsetting residents in the McKernan neighbourhood.

"I was appalled," says Hilary Gray. "I couldn't believe what I saw.

"It's now beyond a joke," she said. "It's extremely unsightly. We're getting complaints from the neighbours and people driving through saying, 'How can you let that go on?'"

Passers-by on the busy 114th Street at 78th Avenue first see the spray-painted tarp braying "YARD SALE," before their attention is drawn to the tables of used goods.

The entire yard is covered in old lawn mowers, tables of worn housewares, used shoes and sporting goods, even a mattress.

Gray, who is the secretary of the community league, said the owner of the house owns a junk removal business and is using his yard as a store front.

"People are seeing it every day and they think, 'Oh well, that's a dumpy community if they can allow things like that.'

"And we don't want it that way. We've got a brand new hall right across the road. It gives a poor impression to people who want to come and rent the facility from us."

The city says it's received several complaints about the property. It calls the enterprise a business not a yard sale and has ordered the owner to clean up the property or it will.

That will cost the owner anywhere from $500 to $10,000, "depending on the scope of the mess," said Ryan Pleckaitis, with the complaints and investigation division.

The owner of the property refused to do an interview with CBC.