Selling Your Condo: Can You Keep or Sell the Parking Spot and Locker Separately? It Depends on How They’re Held
The painted number on the concrete tells you nothing. Four documents tell you whether your spot can leave with the suite, stay with you, or go to someone else.
Can I sell my condo and keep the parking spot, or sell the spot to someone else?
Only if the spot is a unit with its own title. Under Ontario’s Condominium Act, every unit with its share of the common elements is its own parcel (s.15(1)), so a separately titled parking unit can be sold or kept on its own, subject to any sale restrictions in your declaration (s.7(4)(c)). If the spot is instead a part of the common elements set aside for your use, you don’t own it: owners hold common elements together and the Act says they shall not be partitioned or divided (s.11(2), s.11(5)).
Source: Condominium Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 19, ss. 7, 11, 15 (Ontario e-Laws, consolidated from 2025-12-31)
The question usually arrives as a blank on a form. Your agent is filling in the listing and asks: is the parking owned, or exclusive use? Then the same question about the locker. Most owners have parked in the same spot for years, pay for it inside the monthly fee, and have never had to answer.
I’m Arthur Zhao, a real estate broker with AZ Real Estate Partners, and this blank matters more than it looks. The answer decides whether the spot can be held back, sold to someone else, or only passed to your buyer with the suite. The good news is that you don’t have to guess. The answer is already written down in four places, and this article goes through them in the order I would pull them.
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Why the documents, not your memory, decide
A condo is made of two kinds of property. Units are owned individually. Common elements are everything else, and under s.11(2) of the Condominium Act the owners hold them together as tenants in common, with an undivided share attached to each unit. A parking space or locker can be built either way. In one building it is a small unit of its own. In the next it is a piece of the common elements that the declaration reserves for one suite, which is what exclusive use means. Section 7(2)(f) requires every declaration to list the parts of the common elements that are for the use of designated units only.
The two look identical in the garage. Legally they are very different, and only the registered documents show which one you have.
Pull the parcel register: does the spot have its own PIN?
PIN (property identification number), and each PIN has a parcel register showing the legal description and what is registered against it. For a condominium plan, the registry keeps a list matching PINs to units and levels.
What to look for: the legal description on your title. If it lists your suite and, separately, another unit and level that turns out to be the parking space or locker, you own that space as a unit. If only the suite appears, the spot is probably exclusive-use common elements or a rental, and the declaration will confirm which.
One detail to watch: a single PIN can cover more than one unit. ServiceOntario’s condominium cross-reference bulletin gives an example of a PIN containing two units on different levels. If your suite and parking unit share one PIN, ask your lawyer what it would take to sell one without the other before you promise anything.
Read the declaration: unit, exclusive use, and any limits on who can buy
First, which kind of space is it? Look for the schedule of exclusive-use common elements required by s.7(2)(f). If your parking or locker number appears there, attached to your suite, it is common elements you have the right to use. You can’t sell or keep it on its own, because common elements cannot be partitioned or divided (s.11(5)). Whether the corporation lets owners swap or reassign exclusive-use spots, and how, depends on the declaration and the corporation’s own rules. There is no single procedure in the Act.
Second, if it is a unit, can anyone buy it? Section 7(4)(c) allows a declaration to set conditions or restrictions on the sale of units. A rule that parking units can only be sold to owners in the same building would come from your declaration or by-laws, not from the Act itself, so read your own documents rather than relying on what a neighbour’s building allows. If the declaration conflicts with the Act, the Act prevails (s.7(5)).
ℹ️Declarations differ from building to building, and some older or unusual condos are set up differently. This article explains how the Act frames the question. It is not legal advice on your unit, so have a real estate lawyer read your title and declaration before you sign anything that holds back or separately sells a parking space or locker.
Order the status certificate: the current version of everything
The corporation has to deliver the certificate within 10 days of receiving the request and the fee (s.76(3)). A buyer’s lawyer will usually ask for one anyway. Seeing it early lets you describe the parking correctly from the start.
A spot you rent from another owner is a private arrangement. It isn’t attached to your suite, and the corporation’s agreement list may not mention it. That spot was never yours to sell or pass on, unless the arrangement itself says otherwise.
Find the Form 101 you signed when you bought
OREA Form 101, describes the property as the unit “together with ownership or exclusive use of Parking Space(s)” and the same for Locker(s), with space for the number and level. Section 8 of the form, Parking and Lockers, then says they are “as described above or assigned as follows,” with a blank for any additional cost.
Your original agreement shows how the spot was described when you bought it, and whether you paid extra for it. Treat it as a lead, not proof. The description in a past agreement is only as accurate as whoever filled it in, and what counts is the registered title and the declaration.
What the documents usually show for each type
If you own it as a unit: what keeping it, or selling it, involves
Keeping it. You stay a condo owner after closing. Each unit carries its own percentage of common expenses set in the declaration (s.7(2)(d)), and as its own parcel it is assessed and taxed separately (s.15(1)). Budget for both. You also lose your say at meetings: under s.49(3), no owner may vote in respect of a unit intended for parking or storage, unless every unit in the corporation is used that way.
Selling it separately. Because the Act exempts dealings with whole units and common interests from s.50 of the Planning Act (s.9(1)(a)), you don’t need a severance to sell a whole parking unit. The buyer simply has to be someone your declaration allows. Each unit’s ownership travels with its share of the common elements (s.11(4)), so the parking unit is sold with its own share.
Tax on that separate sale. Land transfer tax and HST on a stand-alone parking or locker unit depend on the facts of the deal. I won’t give you a rule here. Have your lawyer calculate it and ask your accountant before you price the spot.
💡 My own view: sellers usually worry about whether they can keep or sell the spot. The more common problem is a mismatch: the agreement says “ownership of” a parking space when title and the declaration say exclusive use, or the other way round. The buyer’s lawyer compares the agreement with the registered documents, and that is where a mismatch tends to come out. Whatever you decide about the spot, make the new agreement match what title and the declaration say.
- Condominium Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 19: ss. 7(2)(d), 7(2)(f), 7(4)(c), 7(5), 9(1)(a), 11(2), 11(4), 11(5), 15(1), 15(2), 49(3), 76(1)(f), 76(1)(j), 76(3)
- ServiceOntario land registration bulletin 2012-01, Condominium Cross Reference Improvements (PINs, units and levels)
- OREA Form 101, Agreement of Purchase and Sale – Condominium Resale: property description and section 8, Parking and Lockers
Selling a Condo in Ontario? Here’s Who’s on the Hook for the Status Certificate — and What Happens If a Special Assessment Lands Between Signing and Closing →First Condo Buyer Guide →Selling an Inherited Property in Ontario: Probate, Estate Tax and Capital Gains →The Ontario Selling Blueprint →
Frequently Asked Questions
My parking spot has its own unit number. Can I sell the condo and keep the spot?
Usually yes, if title shows it as a separate unit. Under s.15(1) of Ontario’s Condominium Act each unit is its own parcel. Check your declaration first, because s.7(4)(c) lets it set conditions or restrictions on sales of units, and expect to keep paying that unit’s share of common expenses and its property tax.
Can I sell my exclusive-use parking spot to a neighbour?
Not as property. An exclusive-use spot is part of the common elements, which owners hold together and which the Condominium Act says cannot be partitioned or divided (s.11(2), s.11(5)). Whether the corporation allows exclusive-use spots to be swapped or reassigned is set by your declaration and rules, so ask management.
Where do I find out whether my locker is owned or exclusive use?
Start with the parcel register for your PIN and the declaration’s schedule of exclusive-use areas, which s.7(2)(f) of the Condominium Act requires. The status certificate then gives you the current declaration, by-laws and rules (s.76(1)(f)). Your original Form 101 shows how it was described when you bought.
If I keep a parking unit after selling, do I still get a vote at condo meetings?
Not for that unit. Section 49(3) of the Condominium Act says no owner votes in respect of a unit intended for parking or storage, unless all units in the corporation are used that way. You still pay that unit’s common expenses.
Do I pay land transfer tax or HST if I sell the parking spot on its own?
That depends on the facts of the sale, and this article doesn’t give a rule. Ask your real estate lawyer to calculate it and check HST with your accountant before you set a price. The Condominium Act part is narrower: selling a whole parking unit doesn’t need a Planning Act severance (s.9(1)(a)).
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