Severing a Lot in Ontario: What Consent Really Costs and Takes
Last updated 7 September 2026. Written by Jatin Dua, Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway, Etobicoke. […]
Land, Title and Boundaries
Surveys, easements, encroachments, heritage designation and conservation authority regulation in Ontario.
Buying a Luxury Home Without a Survey: What Can Go Wrong
Title insurance is not a survey. Encroachments, mutual driveways and easements surface the day you try to build, and on a luxury lot that is the most expensive day to find out.
Conservation authority regulated land in the west GTA: 30 metres, 15 m², and the permit that blocks your building permit
O. Reg. 41/24 replaced thirty-six separate conservation authority regulations on 1 April 2024, deleted “pollution or the conservation of land” from the permit test, and cut TRCA’s wetland buffer from 120 metres to 30. The exemptions, the fees at TRCA and Credit Valley, the section 30.7 removal order, and the 2027 amalgamation that abolishes both authorities.
Heritage designation in Ontario: the 1 January 2027 deadline, and why a title search will not find a listing
Section 27(16) of the Ontario Heritage Act gives municipalities until 1 January 2027 to designate legacy listings or remove them. Toronto says roughly 4,000 properties are affected. The difference between listed and designated, the nine criteria and the one-versus-two rule, the 60-day and 90-day and 120-day clocks, and the $60.00 search that finds what a title search cannot.
Mutual driveways in Etobicoke and Toronto: no statute defines them, and the parking pad rules are stricter than you think
The phrase “mutual driveway” appears in no Ontario statute. The only government definition is in Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 918, and it points at a right of way. The width rules, why the front yard parking chapter does not reach Etobicoke, the 2026 fees, and the Planning Act provision that can make an informal split of the strip convey nothing at all.
Encroachments and possessory claims under Land Titles: the date that decides everything
Ten years under section 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act, extinguishment under section 15, and the bar in section 51(1) of the Land Titles Act. Why a fence dispute in Toronto turns on the date the parcel was converted, why Ontario has no encroachment statute at all, and the four statutory obstacles to a Land Titles Assurance Fund claim.
Easements and rights of way in Ontario: what is on your title, and what your neighbour can still claim
Section 51(1) of the Land Titles Act stopped new prescriptive rights the day your parcel converted. Section 44(1) preserved everything that had already matured. The twenty and forty year periods in section 31 of the Real Property Limitations Act, why a warning letter is not an interruption, why there is no such thing as a right to light, and why no Ontario statute extinguishes an easement for non-use.
Surveys and SRPRs in Ontario: what title insurance will not fix
An SRPR is defined in section 28 of O. Reg. 216/10 and excludes condominiums and townhouses. Title insurance is capped at a stated sum by section 139(1) of the Insurance Act. Ontario’s land surveyors say the two are “mutually exclusive products”. What each one does, what the LTCQ qualifier on your Toronto title means, and the $410 procedure that actually settles a boundary.