Underground Property Ownership in Toronto - Who Owns the Rights Under Your Home? By Evan Sage At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

One of the best aspects of my business as a Toronto Real Estate Agent is the day to day variety of the work. There are many twists and turns with every client and they always surprise me with a new challenge. I was asked a very interesting question the other day.

How far down do I own the land when I buy a house in Toronto, Ontario?

My initial thought was to say 6 Feet, I have no idea why, it just felt right. I am glad I didn't go with my gut. Apparently this was not right, however it wasn't wrong either.

I started my search to try and find a specific depth. With the surge in commodities over the past few years there has been a sudden influx in Prospectors staking claims to various mineral rights. There have been some changes in technology that allow a Prospector to stake a property online instead of having to walk the property and physically stake the claim.

This has led to a lot of confusion and several instances have blown up and landed in court. A gentleman by the name of Rob Westie was involved in one of these conflict claims and said "A free miner is the last free man in Canada. They have more power than the RCMP to go on to your property and do whatever they wish."

The confusion and conflicts are caused by all the different types of rights someone may claim on a piece of land. There are mining rights, mineral rights, surface rights, free entry, who has access to the land for living on and who has rights for exploration. A lot of the laws date back to The Gold Rush in the middle of the 19th century, some of them don’t really stand up in today’s society.

All of the conflicts that are raised in Ontario are heard by the Mining and Lands Commissioner.

If you want to be a Prospector and stake a claim you need to be over 18, fill out a form and hand over the large sum of $25.50 for a prospectors license. Here is the link if you are interested, prospectors license.

This licence will allow you to stake claims on land and get access for exploration purposes. To register a claim it is $3 per hectare in Ontario.

Canada has what is called a 'Free Entry' mining system which allows anyone with an exploration claim to stake a site and explore the land. All you need to do is provide the owner of the surface rights with one days notice that the exploration will be taking place.

In a residential area no claims are allowed to take place under the dwelling portion of a property without consent of the home owner. For any exploration to take place on a residential lot in a registered of sub division additional permission is needed from the Minister of Northern Development and Mines.

There is a legal way you can protect your property from someone else claiming the mineral rights to explore the land. You simply need to do it first!

You will need to sign up for your prospectors licence and then stake a claim on your own property. The catch is that you need to actively test and explore the land otherwise the claim becomes inactive and is back out on the open market again. You will need to show assessments with a minimum value of $400 per year. One gentleman dealt with it by registering his property as a shooting range and then put signs up everywhere notifying people that they risked being shot if they wandered around his property. It was crude but effective.

Here is a link to all the properties in Ontario that have claims on them or the surface rights and mineral rights are combined, Ontario Claims Map

If you see a black circle that means the surface rights and mineral rights are combined, if you see a semi circle that means either the Crown or someone else has the mining rights.

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