Selling Property Owned by a Minor in Ontario

It comes up more often than people expect: a child inherits a share of a house, is added to title as part of a family arrangement, or ends up co-owning a cottage passed down through a family. Then, years or even months later, someone wants to sell — and discovers that selling property owned by a minor in Ontario isn't as simple as getting a parent to sign on the child's behalf.

A minor doesn't have the legal capacity to sign a valid transfer of real property or give an enforceable discharge of their own interest in land. That single fact changes the entire process, usually adding a court step that an ordinary resale transaction never touches.

Why a Parent Can't Just Sign for a Minor

Parents can make many decisions for their children, but signing away a legal interest in real property isn't automatically one of them. A minor's ownership interest in land is protected in a way that requires independent oversight before it can be sold or encumbered — the law doesn't treat a parent's consent alone as sufficient, even where the parent is acting in obvious good faith and the sale is clearly in the child's interest.

How This Situation Comes Up

• Inheritance. A minor inherits an interest in a home or cottage under a will or on an intestacy.
• Joint title arrangements. A parent adds a child to title on a family property, sometimes for estate-planning reasons.
• Gifted property. A property, or a share of one, is transferred to a minor directly.
• Family cottages. Multi-generational cottage ownership sometimes includes a share held for a grandchild or minor beneficiary.

The Court Approval Process, in General Terms

Selling a minor's interest in real property in Ontario generally requires a court application seeking approval of the sale. In many cases, someone will need to be appointed or recognized with authority to act on the minor's behalf for the purpose of the transaction — sometimes a parent acting as litigation guardian, sometimes with independent involvement from Ontario's Office of the Children's Lawyer, which can be engaged where a minor has a property interest at stake.

The court's focus is on protecting the minor's interest, not simply approving whatever the adults involved have already agreed to. That typically means the court will also want assurance about what happens to the minor's share of the proceeds — commonly, proceeds attributable to the minor are held in trust or otherwise protected until the minor reaches the age of majority, rather than paid out directly.

Who's Typically Involved

• A guardian or litigation guardian, representing the minor's interest in the court process.
• The court, which must approve the sale (and often the proposed handling of the minor's share of proceeds).
• The Office of the Children's Lawyer, in appropriate cases, providing independent input on the minor's behalf.
• A real estate lawyer, coordinating the transaction itself alongside the court process.

Timing: Build In Extra Room

A sale involving a minor's interest takes longer than a typical resale closing, because it depends on a court process running in parallel with (or ahead of) the real estate transaction itself. If you know a minor holds any interest in a property you're planning to sell, raise it with your lawyer immediately — ideally before you list, and certainly before you sign an Agreement of Purchase and Sale with a tight closing date.

Frequently asked questions