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ARTICLE · 18 JANUARY 2021

Home Owners Ordered To Remove Pool Built Over Municipal Easement

Gardiner Roberts LLP
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Home buyers would do well to ensure that their local municipal by-laws and easements do not prohibit their development plans before they embark on any major construction or renovation projects.

CanadaReal Estate and Construction
James R.G. Cook
James R.G. Cook
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Home buyers would do well to ensure that their local municipal by-laws and easements do not prohibit their development plans before they embark on any major construction or renovation projects. In a recent case, the Ontario Court of Appeal affirmed that home owners were required to remove a pool and associated amenities which they had built on top of a municipal easement.

In Oakville (Town) v. Sullivan, 2021 ONCA 1 (CanLII), the Appellants bought a property in Oakville, Ontario, and subsequently built a swimming pool and surrounding deck, platform, and other amenities behind their house. The pool and amenities extended over a ten-foot strip of land which was subject to a registered easement held by the Respondents, the Town of Oakville and Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution Inc. ("Hydro").

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