# How to find out who owns a plot of land (Toronto, Ontario)



## tendim

There is a plot of land in my neighbourhood which is going unused, and as such it is fairly unkempt. My thoughts are that this would be a great community project to fix it up.

Does anyone know how I would go about locating the owner of the land?

-10d


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## MoneyGal

The Land Registry Office: http://www.ontario.ca/en/information_bundle/land_registration/STEL01_130081.html


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## humble_pie

if what you mean is a project that is orderly & respectful of the owner's rights - ie something like a community vegetable garden - you could probably obtain your municipality or borough's support. Including their financial support. Often municipalities supply compost, better fences & even a shed for the gardeners to keep their tools, if the land is going to remain vacant for at least a year or two.

an agreement would have to be drawn up between the gardeners & the owners saying, in essence, that the arrangement is temporary in nature, that the gardeners can never accumulate any rights of ownership or rights to continue on the land.

whatever local authority taxes the property has the owner's records & it should be free to consult these.

another popular way (not advised, but many are doing this) to improve appearance of the property is to guerrilla garden. The gardeners go in by stealth, sometimes at night, to trim the weeds & plant beautiful plants in their place.

some municipalities actually encourage this, so the gardeners are out in the streets near their houses, planting flowers in those square sidewalk openings around trees, or in traffic islands, or alongside pretty much any dreary public wall or fence.

good luck & please let us know how your story turns out. Either way, it sounds as if all will benefit !


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## Mall Guy

If you aren't friends with or don't know a real estate agent, appraiser, lawyer, or the occasional applied geography student at Ryerson, or planning student at Waterloo, try the following:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7224630_search-title-ontario.html

http://www.geowarehouse.ca/gwhweb/l...RgpGpYnmVc2hQyYchyfnSvygVzsGpS5Ppy!1771775656

However, the Geowarehouse option requires an on-line subscription (pretty pricey for one search). I don't think we subscribe anymore, but I will check. Maybe someone on here has access, and would offer to have a look for you.


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## Cal

I had to use the city offices to check out an address for a property I was looking into to contact them.

Who does maintain the land when it is maintained? The city? They do buy random chunks of land for potential future parks or for investments, especially if the property is adjacent to a property they currently own.


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## marina628

Easy way to handle this is file a complaint at bylaw office , any grass over 20cm ,they file complaint to the owner.Unfortunately in the world we live in, if owner gave you permission to build a nice garden and you forgot to take the rake home one night then somebody strolls out for a walk and falls over rake the owner of the land is up **** creek.If i owned the land i would get it cleaned up but would never allow other to make use of the land for above liability reasons.I have two empty lots beside me and we want to grow a garden around the exterior perimeter to set the boundaries rather than put up a fence so if anyone is interested it is 173ft x 282 ft lol .Just a dream of mine , i will be lucky to get a few cabbage ,rhubarb ,carrots and turnips planted .


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## humble_pie

that is where the municipality can officiate between neighbours wishing to garden & a landowner wishing to upkeep his property at minimal cost.

some munis - mine is one - have forward-looking policies intended to encourage public gardening for health & food security reasons among its citizens. They have budgets to support their green plans. So they assist with building gardens on land that has a multi-year hope for existence.

the cost is relatively low. The biggest cost is fencing. It's possible the landowners might pay to install the fence, because the benefits to themselves in terms of garbage-free well-kept property are immense.

there's a famous garden in NY city. It's fenced - beautiful black wrought-iron fence - but a public path winds among the fenced gardens, with trees & a public bench in the shade. Gardeners are always present, working their plots. There's a grating that looks way down into the NY subway system ...


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## Rusty O'Toole

To find out who owns any piece of land in Ontario, get the street address and go to the local municipality tax office. The tax records are public, usually in a big book.

For additional information take down the legal description and roll number from the tax records. The legal description will be something like Lot 3 Concession 2 or lot and block number, XXXX Plan.

With this information you can go to the Registry Office and look up the legal owner, mortgage, etc for $8.


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## tendim

Hi folks.

Thanks for all of the info, and the useful links.



humble pie said:


> if what you mean is a project that is orderly & respectful of the owner's rights - ie something like a community vegetable garden - you could probably obtain your municipality or borough's support. Including their financial support. Often municipalities supply compost, better fences & even a shed for the gardeners to keep their tools, if the land is going to remain vacant for at least a year or two.


Yup, this is on my list of things to do. I figured before even approaching people for support (I had intended to hit up my local MP and/or MPP, and also the BIA of my neighbourhood), I thought it'd be nice to know if the owners of the land were behind me. 



humble pie said:


> another popular way (not advised, but many are doing this) to improve appearance of the property is to guerrilla garden. The gardeners go in by stealth, sometimes at night, to trim the weeds & plant beautiful plants in their place.


haha. As I am still new to the neighbourhood I don't know of many gardeners as it is, but this is definitely something I'm going to make note of for future ideas. 



Cal said:


> Who does maintain the land when it is maintained? The city? They do buy random chunks of land for potential future parks or for investments, especially if the property is adjacent to a property they currently own.


As far as I can tell, the land isn't maintained at all. And if someone _is_ being paid to maintain it, then they should be fired. That is what gave me the idea in the first place, as the lot is an eyesore.



marina628 said:


> if owner gave you permission to build a nice garden and you forgot to take the rake home one night then somebody strolls out for a walk and falls over rake the owner of the land is up **** creek.If i owned the land i would get it cleaned up but would never allow other to make use of the land for above liability reasons.


Thanks; these are things that I had never considered. I had a general notion that there would be some legal work involved, but I'm wondering where the line is drawn if we make it known that all people _must_ take their equipment home with them at night, and nothing is to be left behind. What would happen if somebody tripped on a stick and injured themselves in a conventional park? Would the city get sued?



Rusty O'Toole said:


> To find out who owns any piece of land in Ontario, get the street address and go to the local municipality tax office. The tax records are public, usually in a big book.





humble pie said:


> whatever local authority taxes the property has the owner's records & it should be free to consult these.





MoneyGal said:


> The Land Registry Office: http://www.ontario.ca/en/information...01_130081.html


I'll be checking out all of these avenues; City Hall is right down the street from my work, so I'll probably attack the tax office first.

Cheers.
-10d


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