Buying and selling commercial premises and professional practices in Ontario — clinics, offices, retail, fuel, industrial.
The old Motor Vehicle Inspection Station regime was revoked in 2025, the Toronto public garage licence is City property, and the environmental history decides whether you buy shares or assets. What an Ontario repair shop purchase actually involves.
Firm registration, the certificate of authorization and the public accounting licence are three documents and none of them transfers. Practice inspection, run-off insurance and the goodwill financing cap decide the rest.
The Veterinarians Act does not restrict who may own a veterinary business or its premises, but the certificate of accreditation is applied for by a College member and attaches to a location. That gap is where veterinary deals go wrong.
A brokerage registration cannot be bought or sold. Written by a Broker of Record: what TRESA and RECO actually require on a change of ownership, and why no credible source publishes what a brokerage is worth.
Every owner of an Ontario physiotherapy professional corporation must be a physiotherapist. What the College publishes for outside investors, and the filing that protects the certificate of authorization.
The Ontario College of Pharmacists treats acquiring an existing pharmacy as equivalent to opening a new one, with a new certificate and a new accreditation number. That single rule reorders the deal, the fit-out and the closing date.
A law practice has no inventory. The certificate of authorization does not transfer, the clients are free to leave, and the trust ledger and the file room decide whether the deal is worth doing.
An Ontario retail fuel outlet licence is not transferable, and the 90-day bridge under O. Reg. 217/01 starts when you file, not when you close. Here is how the licensing, tax and employment pieces of a fuel site purchase actually fit together.
A dentist’s registration does not transfer with the practice. What does transfer, what the RCDSO requires on a change of ownership, and why nobody publishes what an Ontario dental practice sells for.
Section 20(5) of the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 says a licence is not transferable. That single sentence decides whether your daycare purchase is an asset deal with a new licence application behind it or a share deal that leaves the licence untouched.
