Who can issue parking tickets on your private property?
Only a municipal law enforcement officer can. On private property in Toronto that means a Toronto Police Parking Enforcement officer, or a person certified by the Chief of Police who works for a licensed private parking enforcement agency.
The company on your property never holds the authority itself. It employs people the City has appointed, and the ticket they write is the City's penalty notice, not the company's bill.
If the company is not licensed, or the person writing is not certified, what gets left on the windshield is not a penalty notice. We call it what it is: an invoice, and an unenforceable one. Nothing in Chapter 610 sits behind it, so there is no administrative penalty, no screening review, and no plate denial, and your property is the one carrying the exposure.
For this article, we'll reference Toronto Municipal Code Chapters 610, 150 and 545. No single one of them answers the question, which is why most articles on this get it half right.
How a private company gets the power to ticket
Toronto handles parking tickets through its administrative penalty system, so the document is a penalty notice rather than a court charge. Three chapters have to line up before one can be issued, and they point at each other in order.
- Chapter 610 decides who may issue one. Section 610-1.1 defines an enforcement officer for a parking by-law as a municipal law enforcement officer appointed under Chapter 150, or a police officer or cadet employed by the Toronto Police Service. Nobody else appears on that list.
- Chapter 150 does the appointing. Section 150-5A says every certified officer for parking offences who meets the conditions in section 150-5B is appointed a municipal law enforcement officer, for the time period and the area of the City set out in the Chief's certification, and specifically for issuing penalty notices about parking on private and municipal property. A separate article does the same for Toronto Police Parking Enforcement: sections 150-8 and 150-9 appoint any Toronto Police Service employee the Chief has certified. Both routes run through the same certification, and the difference is only who employs the officer.
- Chapter 545 licenses the employer. Section 150-4 only certifies someone who works for a business holding a valid private parking enforcement agency licence under Chapter 545. Lose the licence and the certification has nothing to attach to.
In practice, the Chief's designate for all of this is Toronto Police Parking Enforcement, Contract Services Section. Chapter 150 names the Chief of the Toronto Police Service; Contract Services is the unit that administers it.
The link runs both ways, which boards rarely realise. Section 150-5D says the appointment terminates immediately the moment a certified officer stops being an employee, officer or principal of the licensed agency. Section 150-5E lets the Chief suspend or cancel a certificate at any time.
What an officer must be, and must not be
Section 150-5B sets seven, and section 150-5E lets the Chief suspend or cancel the certificate of anyone who stops meeting them:
- At least 18, and entitled to work in Canada.
- Employed by a business currently licensed as a private parking enforcement agency under Chapter 545, or a principal or officer of one.
- No tow truck connection, for them or the agency.
- Agreed to background checks confirming good character.
- No criminal or federal charges pending, and no record that would damage their credibility in court, unless a pardon has been granted.
- Their agency holds an indemnity agreement with the City and keeps liability insurance on file.
- Nobody at the agency issues any document about a parked vehicle beyond a penalty notice, a Toronto Police Service tow card, or a warning notice.
Section 545-444A adds the agency's own duty. Its officers must have completed the private parking enforcement course approved by the Chief of Police, and the agency has to ensure enforcement work is done only by municipal law enforcement officers. A security guard, a concierge, or a property manager cannot write the ticket, however well they know the lot.
What to ask the company on your property
Each one maps to a condition Chapters 150 and 545 already impose, so none of it is a favour to ask, and all five are checkable in an afternoon. In our experience they are almost never asked, usually because nobody realises the property carries any of the risk.
- Is our property on the list you file with the Parking Enforcement Unit?
- An agency cannot enforce at a property missing from that list. New properties are the ones that get missed, and the gap is invisible from your side.
- When was our written agreement filed, and with whom?
- The agreement goes to Toronto Police, on a deadline. Ask for the date it was filed and who received it.
- Who on your team is currently certified, and until when?
- Certification runs for a fixed period and a set area, and it ends the day an officer leaves the agency. Ask for the current officers by name, and ask again at every renewal.
- Is any of this arranged as a share of the tickets?
- Nobody may pay your property for the right to enforce, and no incentive may track the number of vehicles ticketed. A proposal offering your board revenue per ticket is describing an agreement that cannot comply.
- Do we actually need this?
- The one we ask ourselves. If a property has two problem vehicles a month, an enforcement contract is usually the wrong tool, and better signage plus a working visitor registration process will solve it for less. We would rather say that than sell coverage a property does not need.
The only three documents an agency may issue
Section 545-450C is the shortest answer to the question people usually mean when they ask it. Nobody employed, engaged, or otherwise acting under a licensed agency's authority may issue any document, tag, ticket or notice, or any request or demand for payment, about a vehicle parked on private property, other than:
- a penalty notice under Chapter 610,
- a Toronto Police Service tow card, and
- a warning notice.
Section 150-5B(8) repeats the same list as a condition of the officer's appointment, and section 150-5C says no municipal law enforcement officer may ask the owner or driver to pay any fee. Money moves between the driver and the City, never between the driver and the company.
Two more absolutes worth knowing, because property managers get asked for both. Sections 545-450.1 and 150-5F prohibit anyone acting under an agency from restraining or immobilizing a vehicle in any manner whatsoever, so boots are out. Section 150-5B(4) bars the agency and its officers from any tow truck ownership, operation or employment, which is why your enforcement provider cannot also be your tow provider.
Who can cancel a ticket, and who cannot
Under O. Reg. 611/06 section 8(1), anyone who receives a penalty notice has the right to a review by a screening officer appointed by the City, and then, in the circumstances the by-law sets out, by a hearing officer. Those officers can cancel, affirm or vary the penalty. Nobody else can.
That includes us, and it includes your board. When a resident asks a property manager to have a notice withdrawn, the honest answer is that no one on the property or at the enforcement company has that power, and the request goes to the municipality named on the notice.
Outside Toronto
The provincial framing is the same across Ontario, even though the local by-laws are not. Where a municipality has moved parking to administrative penalties under section 102.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001, section 4 of O. Reg. 333/07 switches off the Provincial Offences Act for those by-laws, and the same screening and hearing officer structure applies.
Where it has not, a parking ticket is still a court process under Part II of the Provincial Offences Act, and section 15(1) says a provincial offences officer who believes from personal knowledge that a parking infraction has been committed may issue the certificate and notice. Section 1(1) of that Act defines who counts, and clause (e) is the one that matters here: an officer, employee or agent of a municipality whose responsibilities include enforcing a by-law. That clause is how a private agency's staff carry authority at all, in either system.
What differs is the local machinery. Toronto certifies officers through the Chief of Police and licenses agencies under Chapter 545. In the other municipalities we work in, the by-law enforcement service for that municipality runs the equivalent process. We have not published the details for Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon or Ottawa here, because we have not read those by-laws end to end, and we would rather leave a section unwritten than describe a process we have not checked at the source.
Frequently asked
- Can a private company issue parking tickets on private property?
- Yes, but only through people the municipality has appointed. In Toronto, Chapter 610 says a penalty notice for a parking by-law can only be issued by an enforcement officer, which section 610-1.1 defines as a municipal law enforcement officer appointed under Chapter 150 or a police officer or cadet employed by the Toronto Police Service. Section 150-5A appoints a certified officer of a licensed private parking enforcement agency as a municipal law enforcement officer, and sections 150-8 and 150-9 do the same for certified Toronto Police Service employees, which is how Toronto Police Parking Enforcement officers hold their authority. So the company employs the officer, but the authority to ticket comes from the City, and the notice is the City of Toronto penalty notice.
- What makes someone a certified officer for parking offences in Toronto?
- Section 150-4 defines a certified officer (parking offences) as a principal, officer or employee of a business holding a valid private parking enforcement agency licence under Chapter 545, who has been certified by the Chief of Police as competent to enforce parking by-laws, for the period and area set out in that certificate, and whose certificate has not lapsed or been suspended or cancelled. Section 545-444A also requires them to have completed the private parking enforcement course approved by the Chief of Police.
- Can a parking company send me an invoice or a private ticket instead?
- Not in Toronto. Section 545-450C says nobody acting under a licensed agency may issue any document, tag, ticket or notice, or any request or demand for payment, about a vehicle parked on private property, other than a penalty notice under Chapter 610, a Toronto Police Service tow card, or a warning notice. Section 150-5C separately says a municipal law enforcement officer may not ask a driver or owner for payment of any fee.
- Does my property need an agreement with the enforcement agency?
- Yes. Section 545-449A says no agency may provide parking enforcement services at a property without a written agreement with the owner or occupant, and section 545-449E says that agreement has to be filed with the Toronto Police Service Parking Enforcement Unit within 10 days. Section 545-448 separately requires the agency to file a list of every property it serves, and says it cannot enforce at a property that is not on that list.
- Can my condo corporation be paid a share of the tickets issued?
- No. Section 545-449A(1) requires the written agreement to state that the agency pays the owner or occupant no fee, commission, gift or other consideration in return for the enforcement work. Section 545-449A(2) requires it to state that the agency demands no financial incentive based on the number of vehicles it enforces against. Section 545-451 repeats the prohibition on the agency side.
- Can the enforcement company cancel a ticket it issued?
- No. Under O. Reg. 611/06 section 8(1), a person who receives a penalty notice has the right to a review by a screening officer appointed by the City, and then in some circumstances by a hearing officer appointed by the City. Only those officers can cancel, affirm or vary a penalty. The company that issued it has no power to withdraw it, and paragraph 2 of that same section says the individual who issues a penalty notice may not accept payment of it.
Find out whether the enforcement on your property actually complies
We check the agreement, the agency licence, the officer certifications and the signs against the by-law where your property sits, and give you the findings in writing. There is no charge and no obligation.
Last reviewed: 6 August 2026. Sourced to Toronto Municipal Code Chapters 610, 150 and 545, the Provincial Offences Act, the Municipal Act, 2001, and O. Reg. 611/06.