Contacting the owners 

In order to reach the other owners, you need to know who they are and where they live. With this information, you can save a lot of time and energy by skipping all the rental units and just approach the owner-residents in your building.

How to get that information
The easiest way is to write an e-mail or letter and send it to the property manager. They are required to supply you with that information.

However, many managers either ignore your request or refuse. They may state they are refusing because you are asking for confidential information. That is bull and they know it.

Still, make out your request as described in the page Examining the records. That may be important down the road if you take the corporation to court as it shows a situation where they ignored the Act.

You may receive an owners list that may contain incorrect information. This may happen if the manager deliberately gives you an outdated list. It is more likely that the names and addresses on record are incomplete or inaccurate because new owners do not register with the manager as they should or they do not give their new addresses to the management office.

If you check your list against the city tax records, you may find discrepancies.

Using city tax records
You can go to Toronto City Hall and the Toronto Civic Centres and look up the owners using the city tax assessment records. There are four computers at Toronto City Hall and one at the York Civic Centre. They are free to use but it costs a dollar a printout so bring a pad of paper and make notes. Better still, bring a digital camera and photograph the screen as you scroll down the list.

At Toronto City Hall, go in the front doors. On your left there is a small sign saying Assessment Information. Go into a small room inside the circular reception area. There are four computers on tables to your left. A sign above them says Toronto Property Assessment Roll.



On your right are shelves with binders containing paper copies of the municipal tax records. The paper records are updated once a year while the electronic records may be only three to four months old.

This room is open from 8:30 am to 4:15 pm. The computers at the other city offices may be available for longer hours.


Touch the left white square to start.

The computers are operated using a mouse. There are no keyboards so they take a while to get use to.


Use the mouse to put in street number. Then put in the name of street.

Type in the address number and street name. (Do not enter the words "Street", "St", Avenue", etc.) You can also enter just the street name and scroll down to the exact address.


The blue arrows show the owner's name. The green arrows is a second line that says Vacant for the same Unit# which usually means it is rented.

Click on “Unit” and then “Show Property” (button) and the owners’ names comes up. If there is a second line for the same unit number and it says Vacant, then most likely, the unit is being rented. The tenants’ names use to be listed but since that data was very unreliable, the city now lists the property as vacant.


This screen shows the owners' names and address.

Click on the owner’s name(s) and it will give you their mailing address. It will also tell you if they are a public or separate school board supporter.

These records can be extremely useful if you get involved in a proxy fight. If you have the correct owner names from the tax records, you may be able to challenge proxies that are made out by people who are not the rightful owners. It can be common as renters may sign proxies, as will residents who live there but a relative is the actual owner.

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