How To Transfer Car Ownership In Ontario

Are you wondering how to gift or transfer your car’s ownership to someone in Ontario? Well, you’re in luck as you can transfer ownership of your car to a family member without the recipient paying the retail sales tax (RST). If you are gifting your car to a non-family member, you can do so, but the recipient will need to pay the retail sales tax just as if you were selling the car privately. If you are planning on transferring ownership of your vehicle, read the following tips to ensure that you can be ready to head to ServiceOntario in order to transfer ownership of your car to a family member.

Who Is Eligible For A Car Ownership Transfer In Ontario?

You can transfer your car’s ownership to the following family members without requiring them to pay the RST:

Spouse (including a common law spouse).
Parent or step-parent.
Grandparent or step-grandparent.
Son or step-son.
Daughter or step-daughter.
Grandson or step-grandson.
Granddaughter or step-granddaughter.
Son-in-law.
Daughter-in-law.
Father-in-law.
Mother-in-law.
Sibling.
Half siblings (siblings with a common parent).
Adopted siblings (siblings with a common parent through adoption).

Useful Tips On How To Best Transfer Ownership Of Your Vehicle In Ontario

Before you surprise your family member with a gift of your car, be sure to follow these 6 tips in order to avoid any problems and difficulties in transferring your car’s ownership to them.

Pay Off Any Remaining Loans On Your Car

You can’t gift your car or transfer ownership to anyone if you are not the legal owner of the vehicle. This means that you need to pay off any outstanding loan balances in order to be deemed the owner of that vehicle. Once you have cleared your loan payments, you’ll have a clean car title with no lien, and then you’ll be ready to transfer ownership to someone else.

Have Auto Insurance

If you are receiving a transfer ownership of a vehicle in Ontario, you must have that vehicle insured in order to have it registered. As a recipient, you will be asked to provide proof of insurance from a licensed insurance provider when you register your gifted vehicle at a ServiceOntario location.

Complete A Sworn Statement For Family Gift Form

When gifting a vehicle to a family member in Ontario, you are required to submit a sworn statement that the car is a family gift and that the recipient is an eligible family member. To complete this statement, you and the recipient will both need to sign a form in front of a lawyer or a notary public.

You can download this form from the Government of Ontario’s website, or pick it up at a Service Ontario location.

Have Your Vehicle Ownership Permit Ready

Your vehicle’s ownership permit is a green piece of paper with the vehicle’s registration information. You can find the transfer portion on the back of the document. Be sure to bring this document to ServiceOntario when you are ready to transfer ownership to someone else.

Get A Safety Standards Certificate

When transferring ownership of your vehicle to a family member, you will need to provide a safety standards certificate that proves that the vehicle meets the minimum safety standards. You can obtain this certificate once your vehicle passes inspection at any licensed inspection stations of the Ministry of Transportation (MTO).

If you are gifting the vehicle to your spouse, this step can be skipped as long as your spouse completes a spousal declaration form.

Complete A Plate Transfer Declaration

If you are gifting the vehicle to a spouse, a parent, or a child, you can either transfer the existing license plate or get a new one. Be aware that you can not transfer a license plate to any other family member except for a spouse, a parent, or a child. To transfer the license plate, you will need to complete a plate transfer declaration from.

If you have any questions about transferring your car’s ownership and would like to have your gifted vehicle properly insured, please contact us today so that we can meet your car insurance needs.