How to Get a Residential Parking Permit in Toronto

Toronto does not allow overnight street parking everywhere. Most public roads carry an unsigned three-hour parking limit, and the exception is a street the City has designated for permit parking under Chapter 925 of the Toronto Municipal Code. This guide covers the City of Toronto only: the residential on-street permit for people who live on a designated street. It does not cover temporary permits for visitors, commercial parking, or parking in another city.

Step 1: Confirm your street is a permit street

Permit parking is not citywide. It applies only on roads and areas the City has designated under Chapter 925, and each designated road has its own entry in the City's schedule that sets the times of day when permit parking is available on that road. The signs on your street show the permit period for your street. If you are not sure whether your street is designated, contact the City's Permit Parking office before you apply, because an application for a street that is not designated cannot succeed. New developments can also be excluded from eligibility under Chapter 925, so a new building does not automatically bring permit parking with it.

Step 2: Check that you qualify as a resident

Only owners, tenants, or occupants of premises abutting a road on which permit parking is permitted are entitled to request a permit. You must actually reside at those premises. There must either be no parking space at the premises, no reasonable access to the parking space, or, if there are parking spaces at the premises, the space must not be available for your use. The City assigns a priority to each application based on that on-site parking picture, with the highest priority going to residents with no space, no reasonable access, or no space available to them. If your street is full, your application goes onto a wait list ranked by priority and then by application date.

Step 3: Check that your vehicle fits the limits

On-street parking permits are only issued for passenger motor vehicles, motorcycles, and scooters. Permits may also be issued for vans, panel trucks, pick-up trucks, or taxi cabs where the vehicle is the sole means of family transportation for the permit holder, provided that the vehicle is 5.2 metres or less in length and has a registered gross weight of 3,000 kilograms or less. A van, panel truck, or pick-up truck that is not the family's sole means of transportation can still qualify where the vehicle is used solely for personal purposes by the permit holder and the commercial motor vehicle permit is stamped Primarily Personal/Recreational Use by the Ministry of Transportation, with the same 5.2-metre and 3,000-kilogram limits. On-street parking permits shall not be issued for campers, camper-trailers, recreational vehicles, motor homes, trailers, boats, or other recreational vehicles mounted on trailers. In order to be eligible for a permit, the licence plate validation must be up to date.

Step 4: Apply with your registration and driver's licence

Apply to the City's Permit Parking office. Your application needs your name, address, and phone number, plus copies of your valid vehicle registration and driver's licence, and the General Manager may also ask for proof of residency. The City describes applying by mail or in person at the Permit Parking office for the residential permit, while temporary permits for visitors can be bought online. Have the documents ready before you file, because a missing document is the most common cause of delay. Keep a copy of everything you submit.

Step 5: Display the permit and follow the signs

Whenever a motor vehicle is parked under a permit, the permit must be clearly displayed in the windshield of the vehicle. Parking is permitted under a permit only on the highways, on the side of the highway, and at the locations and times identified on the signage in the permit parking area, and during those times no person may park in a location designated for permit parking unless they hold a valid permit. A vehicle with a valid permit properly displayed is subject to all parking prohibitions, including temporary restrictions imposed to facilitate snow removal operations, but is exempt from parking duration limits. Even with a permit, no person may park a motor vehicle continuously in any place for more than seven consecutive days. Where permit parking signs and pay-and-display signs co-exist, a valid permit holder is not required to pay the meter or parking machine unless otherwise posted. A vehicle with a valid permit properly displayed may also display a for sale sign.

Step 6: Renew on time and keep the permit valid

Renewal follows the same Chapter 925 requirements as a first application, and the City publishes a renewal policy page based on the Code chapter. A permit may be revoked or cancelled when it is necessary to ensure public safety, when it was obtained through the submission of false, misleading, or fraudulent information, or when the vehicle in respect of which the permit was issued has an expired validation sticker. If your circumstances change, for example you move, change vehicles, or gain access to an on-site parking space, tell the Permit Parking office rather than letting the permit run on stale facts. The City's renewal information states that if there is any discrepancy between its guide and the Code chapter, the Code chapter governs.

Figures the opened City of Toronto pages do not state

The opened City pages state the eligibility rules, the vehicle limits, the display and use conditions, and the revocation rules set out above. They do not state the current fee for a residential permit, the permit term dates, or the exact fields on the current application form. Those figures were cut from this guide rather than filled in from another source. The priority 1/2/3 order and the wait-list ranking by priority and then by application date rest on Municipal Code Chapter 925 itself, as quoted with section numbers in secondary summaries of the chapter — the opened City terms page states it is based on Chapter 925 but does not carry the priority sections. Confirm the current priority rules on the Chapter 925 consolidation before you apply. Confirm the current fee and the term dates with the Permit Parking office before you apply, and check the fee schedule on toronto.ca at the time you file.

Related guides:

• How to dispute a parking ticket in Toronto: what to do if you are ticketed in Toronto, including the dispute route for a parking ticket.
• How to register a vehicle in Ontario: the Ontario vehicle registration your permit application relies on, including the plate validation that must be up to date.
• How to get a building permit in Toronto: the City of Toronto's building permit process, for work on the property itself rather than parking on its street.

Sources

• City of Toronto, Residential Permit Parking Renewal — the Chapter 925 basis, the owner, tenant, or occupant requirement, the on-site parking test, the vehicle types and the 5.2-metre and 3,000-kilogram limits, the exclusions, the plate validation rule, the display and seven-day rules, and the revocation rules.