For those of you looking to purchase a home with the hopes up rejigging the front garden of the house please beware! The City of Toronto changed the rules for the old city back in 2004. It is very difficult to get this permission in fact it may be impossible. Be sure to do the research before you buy!!! I recently spent 20 mins on the phone with the off street parking by-law officer. The listing agent was claiming that the city would permit it whereas I didn’t agree. I’m glad I did the research as the city would not permit front pad parking for a meriad of reasons.
Parking can make up 5-10% of the value of a downtown Toronto house. This is a substantial difference in price.
Also, if there is already front pad parking please note that the permit does not transfer with title, the purchaser has to apply for her/his permit upon possession. Again, this can be a little difficult when evaluating a home. So be sure a professional realtor does the research, as it is your money and dreams going into the purchase.
I have included a great brochure about off street parking in Toronto in the below SlideShare.
The following is a link to the web site where the applications can be found along with the code governing front yard parking.
http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/offstreet/index.htm
Here you will find a link to currently licensed front yard parking locations.
Also there is a link to the Ward profile where you can enter an address and it will let you know what ward the property is in and from there you can determine if they can submit an application.
http://app.toronto.ca/wards/jsp/wards.jsp
This link takes you top the map of the City and its wards.
