Parking options when buying an apartment condo

There are four parking options available for apartment condos.

No parking – this is probably the most important, because if you have a car and you want to park it close to where you live, you need to confirm the unit you are purchasing comes with parking! Most apartment condos come with parking, but be sure to tell your REALTOR® that you need parking so they can filter out any condos that do not come with it.

Titled parking – this is where you would own the parking stall. You will have a separate title to the parking stall, a separate tax bill for it, and the condo survey plan registered at land titles swill show the stalls on the parking plan outlined with solid lines.

Assigned parking – this is where the condo corp owns the entire parking space and assigns stalls to units. How they manage this will be outlined in the corporations bylaws or additional rules/regulations they establish as a condo board.

It is not guaranteed that the stall you have when you purchase will not change, and the board may reassign a parking stall upon sale of a unit. If the location of a stall is a deal breaker for you, then a condition can be added in the contract that the buyer will seek and obtain written confirmation from the board that they will be assigned a particular stall. If you can’t secure that stall, you can choose not to waive the condition, and not purchase the property.

Leased parking – this is where the board enters into a lease agreement with the living unit owner to secure a certain stall for a fixed time. The lease’s cost, length and ability t to renew, cancel or sell the lease may all be important to the buyer. Although rare, leased parking can sneak up on a buyer when assumptions about the parking situation are not made and confirmed.

It is important to confirm the parking type when purchasing a condo. The parking type can be found on the land title, survey plan, Additional plan sheet, and bylaws. Although reviewing restrictions in the bylaws is important, a REALTOR® is not qualified to review condo documents for any client, so you can have the condo documents reviewed by a professional.