Note: The rules and law may have changed since this article was first published. It is provided for archival purposes but you should consult with your lawyer for the current state of the law
Parking is an important consideration for condominiums. In order for a Residential Condominium Plan to be approved the developer must designate at least one parking space as an exclusive use area for each condo unit.
Parking spaces are not owned by the individual condo owners, they are exclusive use areas and registered as such against the Condominium Plan (note: Saskatchewan recently updated its legislation to allow titled parking spots, so these may become more common). As such, subject to the bylaws of the Condominium Corporation, the Condominium Corporation is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the exclusive use area. In order to accommodate this, the exclusive use interest holder is required to allow the Condominium Corporation access to the exclusive use area for maintenance and repair.
A parking space designated for a unit remains with the unit unless there is written approval for re-designation of the parking space. The re-designation of a parking space is permitted by the Condominium Property Act.
Because there must be at least one parking space designated as an exclusive use area for each condo unit, a condo owner with two parking spaces can sell one, or two condo owners can agree to sell each other their parking spaces, but, a condo owner cannot sell their designated parking space if it will leave them without a parking space. In this situation a condo owner would be able to rent/lease their parking space.
The Developer is also able to keep certain parking spaces as non-exclusive use areas. Pursuant to their Bylaws a Condominium Corporation can lease those non-exclusive use parking spaces to others or can have the plan amended to designate any non-exclusive use parking space, to a condo unit for exclusive use.
To determine the status of parking spots one can consult the Condominium Plan. The Condominium Plan is the legend that holds information with respect to the unit numbers regarding unit factors and parking designations.