Expropriation: when a public authority takes your land.

What expropriation means in Ontario

Section 1(1) of Ontario’s Expropriations Act defines “expropriate” as the taking of land without the owner’s consent by an expropriating authority using its statutory powers. An expropriating authority is the Crown or any person a statute empowers to expropriate. For a city, town or region outside Toronto, that power comes from section 6(1) of the Municipal Act, 2001, which says a municipality’s power to acquire land includes the power to expropriate it in accordance with the Expropriations Act.

Two definitions in the Act matter more than most owners expect. “Land” includes any estate, term, easement, right or interest in, to, over or affecting land, so an authority can take a strip of a lot, an easement for a pipe or a temporary working area, not only a whole property. “Owner” is also wide: it includes a mortgagee, a tenant, an execution creditor, a guardian of property, and an executor, administrator or trustee in whom land is vested. A tenant running a shop and an estate trustee holding a parent’s house can each have rights under the Act.

The Act applies despite any other general or special Act whenever land is expropriated or injurious affection is caused by a statutory authority (section 2(1)), it prevails over any conflicting provision of another Act (section 2(4)), and it binds the Crown (section 3). The rest of this page walks through the steps in order, then what the compensation can include, then where disputes go.

How an expropriation works, step by step

The Act sets a fixed sequence. Most of the time limits below run from a document being served on you, so the date each letter arrives is worth recording.

1. Application for approval. An authority cannot expropriate without the approval of an approving authority (section 4(1)). Under section 5(1), that is usually the Minister responsible for the Act that grants the power; when a municipality expropriates for municipal purposes, it is the municipality’s own council.
2. Notice of application. When it applies for approval, the authority must serve a notice on each registered owner and publish it once a week for three consecutive weeks in a local newspaper (section 6(1)). Regulation 363 sets the forms; this notice is Form 2.
3. Asking for a hearing of necessity. An owner who wants a hearing must notify the approving authority in writing within 30 days after being served, or, for an owner who is not a registered owner, within 30 days after the first publication (section 6(2)).
4. The hearing and the report. If an owner asks for a hearing, the approving authority refers the matter to the Ontario Land Tribunal for a hearing by a single member (section 7(1)), which then reports to the approving authority and the parties (section 7(6)).
5. Approval. The approving authority approves, refuses, or approves with changes, and must serve its written reasons within 90 days after receiving the report (section 8).
6. Registration of the plan. Within three months after approval, the authority registers a plan of the land, signed by an Ontario land surveyor, in the land registry office. On registration, and not otherwise, the land vests in the authority (section 9(1)).
7. Notice of expropriation. If no compensation agreement has been made, the authority must serve the registered owner with a notice of expropriation within 30 days after registration (section 10(1)), with a notice of election (Forms 7 and 8 under Regulation 363).
8. Offer and immediate payment. Within three months after registration, and before taking possession, the authority must serve an offer of full compensation and offer immediate payment of 100 per cent of its own estimate of the market value (section 25(1)).
9. Possession. The authority takes possession on the date in a notice of possession, which must be at least three months after the notice is served unless a judge sets another date (section 39).
10. Agreement or a claim. If the authority and the owner cannot agree on compensation, either may apply to the Tribunal to decide it (section 26).

The hearing of necessity

A hearing of necessity is about whether the taking should happen, not how much it is worth. Under section 7(5), the Tribunal inquires into whether the taking of the land, or any part of it, is “fair, sound and reasonably necessary in the achievement of the objectives of the expropriating authority.” The parties are the authority, each owner who asked for the hearing, and any owner the Tribunal adds because its land would be affected (section 7(2)). At least five days before the hearing, the authority must serve the grounds it will rely on and make its maps, plans and other documents available for inspection (section 7(4)).

The Tribunal’s report sets out a summary of the evidence, its findings of fact and its opinion on the merits with reasons (section 7(6)). The report is a recommendation: the decision belongs to the approving authority, which can approve the taking as proposed, refuse it, or approve it with changes. The Tribunal may recommend that a party be paid a fixed amount for its costs of the hearing, capped at $200 unless a higher amount is prescribed, and the approving authority may then order the expropriating authority to pay it (section 7(7) and (8)). Section 31(4) says the Divisional Court appeal route does not apply to the Tribunal’s work under section 7, and section 43 requires any application to set aside a step under the Act to be made within 30 days after that step, with exceptions for steps the applicant was entitled to but not given notice of, and for nullities.

A hearing is not always available. Under section 6(3), the provincial Cabinet may, in special circumstances, direct that an expropriation proceed without one. In 2020 the Legislature also passed the Building Transit Faster Act, 2020 (Bill 171), which removes hearings of necessity for land at least partly on designated transit corridor land. As first passed, section 44 of that Act applied to four “priority transit projects“, including the Yonge North Subway Extension, which the Act describes as extending from within the City of Toronto to within the Regional Municipality of York. Since a 2025 amendment in force June 5, 2025, it applies to any “provincial transit project” that Metrolinx has authority to carry out. Section 45 lets the Minister set up a process for receiving and considering owners’ comments about a proposed expropriation. The Legislature’s explanatory note to Bill 171 summed up the change: the Bill “eliminates hearings of necessity” for expropriations along the transit corridors.

Ontario’s e-Laws also shows amendments to the Expropriations Act that were passed but not in force when this page was written, including a regulation-based comments process that would replace the hearing for any expropriation a regulation applies it to (section 8.1, from 2021) and new publication rules for notices (from 2024). Read the version of the Act in force on the date your notice was served.

The offer and the section 25 payment

If there is no agreement, section 25(1) requires the authority, within three months after the plan is registered and before it takes possession, to serve the registered owner with an offer of an amount in full compensation for that owner’s interest and, unless the owner is a tenant, a statement of the total compensation offered for all interests in the land. Compensation for business loss can be left out, because section 19 postpones it. The authority must also offer immediate payment of 100 per cent of the market value of the land as the authority estimates it.

Two protections come with that payment. The offer must be based on an appraisal report of the market value and the damages for injurious affection, and a copy of the report must be served with the offer (section 25(2)). And taking the money is “without prejudice” to the owner’s rights to have compensation determined under the Act: the payment is simply adjusted against whatever is later agreed or decided. If the offer is not served in time, the expropriation still stands, but interest on the unpaid compensation runs from the date the plan was registered (section 25(4)). A judge can extend the time on the authority’s application (section 25(3)).

Separately, section 10(2) lets the registered owner choose, within 30 days after being served with the notice of expropriation, the date as of which compensation is assessed: the date the notice of hearing was served (if there was a hearing), the date the plan was registered, or the date the notice of expropriation was served. An owner who does not elect in time is deemed to have chosen the registration date. In a rising or falling market, that choice can change the number.

What compensation can include

Section 13(2) says compensation for expropriated land is based on four things: the market value of the land, damages for disturbance, damages for injurious affection, and any special difficulties in relocation. Each has its own rules.

Market value leaves out the special use the authority will make of the land, any rise or fall in value caused by the project or the prospect of expropriation, and any increase from an unlawful or unhealthy use (section 14(4)). Where only part of a property is taken and the part has no general market on its own, such as a narrow strip, the value and the injurious affection may be worked out together by valuing the whole property before the taking and deducting its value after (section 14(3)).

Disturbance is where many household costs sit. Where the premises taken include the owner’s residence, section 18(1)(a) adds an allowance for inconvenience and the cost of finding another home equal to 5 per cent of the market value of the part used as a residence (if it was not for sale on the date of expropriation), plus an allowance for improvements whose value is not reflected in the market value. Where the premises taken are not the owner’s home, the owner can recover the cost of finding replacement premises, again only if the land was not being offered for sale on the date of expropriation. Relocation costs, including moving costs and the legal and survey costs of buying other premises, are also payable. All of section 18(1) applies to owners other than tenants; tenants are covered by section 18(2).

Business loss under section 19(1) is compensation for loss caused by relocating a business made necessary by the expropriation. Unless the parties agree otherwise, it is not decided until the business has moved and operated for six months, or three years have passed, whichever comes first. Where relocation is not feasible and the land is valued for its existing use, section 19(2) lets the Tribunal include an amount up to the value of the business’s goodwill. If the business or the land is held through a company, check whose name is on the title or the lease; our page on holding companies in Ontario explains how land is often held in a separate company.

Mortgages are paid out of the market value and any injurious affection damages, in order of priority (section 17), and section 20 sets what the authority pays a mortgagee and a mortgagor when it prepays a mortgage. Under section 35, the compensation stands in place of the land, and claims and encumbrances against the land become claims against the compensation.

Injurious affection, and the one-year limit

Injurious affection has two meanings in section 1(1). When part of your land is taken, it covers the reduced market value of the land you keep, caused by the taking or by the construction or use of the works, plus certain personal and business damages. When none of your land is taken, it covers reduced market value and personal and business damages caused by the construction of the works, not their use, where the authority would be liable if it were not acting under a statute. Section 21 requires the authority to compensate the owner for that loss.

This is where the hard deadline in the Act sits. Under section 22(1), a claim for injurious affection must be made in writing, with particulars, within one year after the damage was sustained or after it became known to the person, and if it is not, “the right to compensation is forever barred.” For a minor or a person who is incapable under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, the year runs from when they stop being a minor or incapable, or from their death (section 22(2)). An owner next to a project, whose land is not taken at all, receives no offer under section 25, so nothing prompts the claim but the owner’s own letter.

Section 23 adds a rule that cuts the other way: the value of any advantage the works bring to your land or remaining land is set off only against the damages for injurious affection, not against market value or disturbance.

When you cannot agree: the Ontario Land Tribunal

Section 26 lets either the owner or the authority apply to the Ontario Land Tribunal to determine compensation, once the authority has complied with section 25 or its time to do so has passed (or, for injurious affection, once section 22 has been complied with). The Tribunal must then determine the compensation (section 29). Section 24 lets the authority make and perform an agreement with the owner on any claim under the Act, including the owner’s costs, so a claim can still be settled by agreement.

The Tribunal’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, Rule 26, set the process. Either side may file an Expropriation Mediation Request Form at any stage. The Tribunal’s guide describes two mediation streams, Simplified Mediation and Formal Mediation, both run by certified mediators, and says mediation is private while hearings are public. An owner who wants a decision serves a combined Application and Statement of Claim setting out the amount claimed, how it is calculated and the facts supporting each item; the authority has 20 days to serve a Reply (Rules 26.11 and 26.12). The Tribunal’s fee chart lists $400 to start a compensation claim under section 26, and no charge for a hearing of necessity or a mediation request.

Section 30 covers owners who agree to sell to an authority without an expropriation: with both sides’ consent, either may apply to the Tribunal to fix the compensation the owner would have received if the land had been expropriated, assessed as of the date of the consent unless they agree otherwise. A Tribunal compensation decision can be appealed to the Divisional Court within six weeks after it is served, on a question of law or fact (section 31(1)).

Who pays your legal and appraisal costs (section 32)

Section 32 is the reason owners can afford to test an offer. Where the Tribunal determines compensation and its award is 85 per cent or more of the amount the authority offered, it must order the authority to pay the reasonable legal, appraisal and other costs the owner actually incurred to determine the compensation. Where the award is below 85 per cent, costs are in the Tribunal’s discretion. Rules 26.19 to 26.26 set the procedure: a request for expropriation costs is usually decided in writing, and the owner files a bill of costs with time dockets for all counsel and expert witnesses, plus receipts for disbursements and expenses. The same rules allow a costs request after a settlement where the amount of costs has not been agreed.

Two practical points follow. Costs are limited to what is reasonable and actually incurred, so keep every invoice and engagement letter. And because the 85 per cent test compares the award with the authority’s offer, the offer itself matters: it is the benchmark for your costs, not only a number to accept or refuse.

What changes the answer

You rent rather than own

A tenant is an owner under the Act. Disturbance is paid as appropriate having regard to the lease, such as its length and the time left on it (section 18(2)), business loss applies to a business located on the land, and under section 34 rent is reduced in proportion when only part of the leased interest is taken, while the lease is deemed frustrated if all of it is taken or the rest becomes unfit for the lease’s purposes. Buyers of a business should read the lease with this in mind; our page on buying or selling a business covers the wider deal.

The owner has died or lost capacity

An executor, administrator or trustee in whom land is vested is an owner, so the estate trustee can receive the notices and make the claim; the wider duties are in what an estate trustee has to do in Ontario. A guardian of property is also an owner, and a judge can appoint a representative for an owner who is unknown or under a disability (section 37). How a guardian comes to be appointed is explained in what happens if you lose capacity without a power of attorney.

Only a limited interest is taken

If the land is needed only for a time, or only an easement or other limited interest is needed, the registered plan must say so, and only that interest vests in the authority (section 9(2)).

You are buying land or a business near a project

An expropriation plan is registered in the land registry office (section 9(1)), so a search of title is one way a buyer can find out whether land has already been taken. For a business purchase, that search sits alongside the corporate and contract checks described in what happens in due diligence when you buy a business.

The authority no longer needs the land

If land is found unnecessary before compensation is paid in full, section 41 requires the authority to notify the owners, and each may elect in writing to take it back with compensation for consequential damages, or to require the authority to keep it and pay full compensation. The land goes back only if all the owners elect to take it back and the authority registers a declaration of abandonment. Once the authority has possession and later finds it no longer needs the land, section 42 says it cannot sell it, without the approving authority’s approval, unless it first gives the former owners the chance to repurchase “on the terms of the best offer received.”

The land is in an estate or on the market

The 5 per cent residence allowance and the cost of finding replacement premises do not apply to land that was being offered for sale on the date of expropriation (section 18(1)). An estate trustee selling a parent’s house near a planned project should factor that in, alongside the steps in how an estate trustee sells or transfers a house.

Common mistakes owners make

• Missing the 30-day windows. The request for a hearing and the election of a valuation date each have 30 days, and an owner who does not elect is deemed to choose the registration date.
• Treating the offer as final. The section 25 payment is without prejudice, and the offer is also the yardstick for the 85 per cent costs rule.
• Letting the year run out on injurious affection. A neighbour harmed by construction gets no offer; without a written claim within one year the right is forever barred.
• Claiming business loss too early. It is usually decided after six months of operating in the new location or three years, so keep the records that will prove it.
• Selling by agreement without dealing with costs. Section 24 lets an agreement cover the owner’s costs, so deal with them expressly in any settlement.
• Forgetting other owners. Where there is more than one separate interest in the land, such as a landlord’s and a tenant’s, section 16 values each separately; mortgagees are paid under section 17.

What to do this week

1. Write down the date each notice arrived, how it was served, and which form it is (Regulation 363 numbers them).
2. Diary the 30-day deadlines: the hearing request under section 6(2) and the valuation date election under section 10(2).
3. Gather the deed, survey, mortgage, any leases and recent property tax assessments; if the land is held in a company, its minute book and registers too.
4. Photograph the property, including trees, fences, driveways and signage, before any work starts.
5. If you run a business there, start a file of monthly revenue, costs and customer records now, for a later business loss claim.
6. If construction nearby has already harmed your property, put a written claim with particulars to the authority within the year.
7. Keep every invoice from your lawyer and appraiser for a section 32 costs request, and request a 30-minute consultation, by video or in person, to go through the notice and the offer.

How we can help

We can act for owners, tenants, estates and companies across Ontario, by video or at our Richmond Hill office. We can review the notices and deadlines, assess whether to ask for a hearing of necessity, read the authority’s appraisal report against the Act, help you choose and instruct your own appraiser, prepare the claim and the costs request, and negotiate or take the matter to the Ontario Land Tribunal. If the land is held in a corporation, our corporate law work can include reviewing who the owner is and who should sign. Where the property is part of an estate or a family plan, our estate planning work can sit alongside the claim. Terms in this area are defined in plain words in our Ontario legal glossary.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Expropriations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.26 (e-Laws, current consolidation, read November 9, 2026)
• R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 363, Forms (notice of application, notice of expropriation, notice of election, possession)
• Building Transit Faster Act, 2020, S.O. 2020, c. 12, ss. 2, 44 and 45 (current)
• Building Transit Faster Act, 2020, as first enacted (priority transit projects)
• Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Bill 171, Building Transit Faster Act, 2020, explanatory note
• Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, c. 25, s. 6 (municipal power to expropriate)
• Ontario Land Tribunal: Rules of Practice and Procedure, Rule 26 (expropriation matters and costs)
• Ontario Land Tribunal: Appeal Guide, Expropriation Matters (updated December 2, 2024)
• Ontario Land Tribunal: Fee Chart (Expropriations Act matters)
• Ontario Land Tribunal: Forms, including the Expropriation Mediation Request Form

This page is general information about Ontario law, not legal advice for your situation.