An NDG landlord is heading to court next month in his battle against graffiti.

Edward Kalil said his building at the corner of Sherbrooke St. and Westmore Ave. has repeatedly been tagged by vandals.

He's removed it more times than he can count.

"It goes on all the time. As fast as we remove it, it comes back on. Whether it's a week or a month later, it's ongoing," said Kalil. “It keeps coming back. Whoever is doing it is relentless.

“It's very frustrating, I'm not young – I'm 82, and I'm not exactly a young guy to get out there with the hose and the brushes,” he said.

In 2011 the Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough passed a bylaw that slapped fines on building owners if they were not prompt at removing graffiti.

At the time, then-borough councillor Susan Clarke suggested businesses put up vines or other barriers to deter vandals.

Kalil has used motion-sensing floodlights and surveillance cameras to deter the people spray painting his building, but it didn't work.

He said he's been diligent at cleaning graffiti, but finds the bylaw is misguided.

"We are the victim the way the law was put into effect," said Kalil, who has owned the building since 1983.

He has used the cleaning products provided by the borough, but gave that up when he found it to be ineffective.

After being fined last year, he is now heading to court on April 28. He will be surrounded by other building owners who he said feel targeted as well.

"It's over $1,000 with the court costs and that's a significant amount of money," said Kalil.

 “I just have to give him my case of what I do to remove the graffiti and show him the bills and some pictures of the wall and hope that (the judge) gives me a fair decision,” he said.

The city said they will not comment while the case is before the court, but the opposition party said the bylaw is a tricky one.

“I sympathize, because he is trying. I think that's the point, he's trying. But what do we do for people who aren't trying at all?” said Projet Montreal councillor Peter McQueen. “We would certainly like to clamp down on the problem on the perpetrators. It's not easy. We've tried the police have tried, we have a court system, it’s easy to say, ‘I want to clamp down.’ It's much harder to do it.”