What is the Finch West LRT and How Will it Affect Property Owners and Tenants on Finch West?
The Finch West LRT is an 11-kilometre light rail transit line that will be constructed on behalf of Metrolinx in collaboration with Infrastructure Ontario. The Finch West LRT will run along the surface of Finch Avenue from the new Finch West Subway Station on the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension at Keele Street to Humber College.
Owners and tenants of commercial, residential or other property along Finch Avenue West may be affected by the Finch West LRT project. If your home, rental, business, or investment property is located on Finch Avenue between Keele Street and Highway 27, Metrolinx may require some or all of your property in order to complete the project. Metrolinx can acquire your property by entering into a voluntary agreement with you or by expropriation. It is important to inform yourself about your rights so that you can protect your interests under either scenario.
Do I need to Get Legal Advice?
You may receive an offer to purchase all or a portion of your property from Metrolinx or a negotiator hired by Metrolinx and/or the City of Toronto. In our experience, these offers often do not account for all of the compensation that you may be entitled to under the Ontario Expropriations Act. To protect your rights you should consider consulting with a lawyer that has experience with expropriations before you sign anything.
An experienced expropriations lawyer can explain the process and the types of compensation that you’re entitled to. An experienced lawyer can also put you in touch with other experts that you may need to consult, including a real estate appraiser, business valuator or engineer. Finally, an expropriation lawyer can help you negotiate a voluntary sale of your property to Metrolinx or, if necessary, represent you through the expropriation process.
Contact an Expropriation Lawyer
What is an Expropriation?
Metrolinx and the City of Toronto have statutory powers to acquire your land without your consent. This act of taking your land is called an expropriation and is regulated by the Expropriations Act. The Expropriations Act sets the steps that Metrolinx or the City must take before expropriating your property. It also sets out your rights throughout the expropriation process, including the right to be properly compensated for the taking of your land and any costs you incur as a result of the expropriation.
Find out more about expropriations
Will I Have to Pay Legal Fees?
In almost all expropriation cases, the Expropriations Act requires the expropriating authorities, such as Metrolinx and the City of Toronto, to pay your legal and expert fees. This means that in most cases you do not have to pay any legal fees or you will be reimbursed for the legal fees that you have paid.
Find out more about legal fees
What if my Property isn’t Being Expropriated? Am I Still Entitled to Compensation?
You may be entitled to compensation even if your property hasn’t been expropriated.
For example, if your businesses is disrupted by the construction of the Finch West LRT, you may be entitled to compensation. If you are a tenant of premises that are expropriated, you also enjoy certain rights to compensation. Similarly, an owner, whose property or business is affected as a result of an expropriation of nearby property, may have a claim for any reduction in the market value of his or her land caused by the construction of the Finch West LRT.
Thomson Rogers’ Expropriations Team
Thomson Rogers has significant experience obtaining compensation for owners and tenants impacted by expropriations. We provide innovative strategies and legal solutions to ensure that our clients are treated fairly throughout the expropriation process.
We frequently act for landowners in claims against Metrolinx and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Our cases range from the most complex business and industrial expropriations to taking of individual families’ homes.