Smart Roads Inc. removes illegally parked vehicles from private property in Richmond Hill. Twenty-four hours a day, at no cost to the owner, the condominium corporation or the property manager. Call 647-219-1786.
The Yonge Street corridor through Richmond Hill has added thousands of condominium units without adding much parking around them. Layer on the retail concentration near Hillcrest Mall and the big-box lots out at Elgin Mills, and unauthorized parking stops being an occasional annoyance and becomes a daily operating problem for the people managing those properties.
Why ticketing does not fix it
Most Richmond Hill properties try warning notices first, and they work on the person who parked wrong once by accident. They do nothing to the driver who has decided your lot is their parking space. A notice left on a windshield on private property carries no penalty anyone can collect, so the vehicle that got one on Monday is back on Tuesday. Removing the vehicle is the only step that actually frees the space, and the only one a repeat offender remembers.
How private property towing works in Richmond Hill
1. Authorization
You sign a short authorization naming Smart Roads as the towing operator for the property. It sets out who on your side is allowed to call for a tow, and you can cancel it whenever you want. There is no term and no minimum.
2. Signage
We supply and install compliant tow-away signage at the entrances and through the lot, at our expense. Without correct signage a tow is not enforceable in Ontario, so this step is not optional and we do not skip it.
3. The call, or the patrol
From there you either call us when a vehicle needs to go, or we patrol on an agreed schedule and act on anything parked in violation. Larger Richmond Hill properties usually run scheduled overnight patrols. Smaller ones call as needed. Both cost the property the same: nothing.
4. The tow, documented
The vehicle is photographed in place before it moves, removed, and reported so the registered owner can be told exactly where it is. You get that documentation whether you ask for it or not, which is what stops a complaint from becoming your problem.
Where we tow in Richmond Hill
We cover Richmond Hill end to end: the Yonge Street corridor, Bayview Hill, Oak Ridges, Jefferson, Mill Pond, Observatory, Devonsleigh and Rouge Woods, plus the commercial areas along Elgin Mills, 16th Avenue, Major Mackenzie and Highway 7.
The calls we get most in Richmond Hill
In Richmond Hill the recurring issue is residents parking additional vehicles in visitor spaces indefinitely, together with restaurant and retail spillover around Hillcrest Mall and the Yonge Street plazas during evening peaks.
Properties we work with
- Condominium corporations and property management companies
- Apartment and rental buildings
- Retail plazas, restaurants and shopping centres
- Office, medical and professional buildings
- Industrial units, warehouses and transport yards
- Car dealerships and service centres
- Places of worship, schools and daycares
- Construction sites and vacant land
The Yonge Street problem
Richmond Hill grew along Yonge Street, and most of the businesses on it inherited small rear lots that were never sized for the buildings around them now. A dental office with eight spaces loses three of them to the restaurant two doors down. The plazas near Hillcrest Mall and the office and retail cluster at Highway 7 and Leslie — Commerce Gate, Times Square and the towers around them — run the same way: lunchtime demand from buildings that have no lot of their own.
Further north, the industrial units around Elgin Mills Road and Newkirk Road deal with equipment and trailers left in yards over long weekends, and with vehicles that were dropped off and never collected. Both are quiet problems until the day the space is actually needed.
Commuter parking and Richmond Hill lots
Anywhere transit concentrates, private lots pay for it. The plazas near the Richmond Hill GO station, the Viva stops along Yonge Street and the Langstaff and Bayview area lots take on commuters who arrive early, leave late and never buy anything. Property managers see it as a full lot with an empty till.
The residential side is familiar: visitor parking in the Bayview Hill, Oak Ridges and Observatory condominium corporations used as permanent parking, and fire routes treated as a place to idle for ten minutes that turns into two hours. We patrol on a schedule where a property wants it and respond to individual calls where it does not, across Richmond Hill and neighbouring Markham, Newmarket and King City.
How Richmond Hill handles parking on private property
Richmond Hill’s parking rules live in its Municipal Code rather than a numbered by-law, and the relevant chapter is 1116. The City’s parking control section states plainly that it enforces the parking regulation on public and private property, which is more than most of its neighbours claim.
- Parking without consent. Section 1116.3.11 prohibits parking on non-municipal property without the consent of the owner or occupant. Section 1116.3.12 deems parking contrary to posted signs to be without consent.
- No repeat complaint needed. Section 1116.3.13 deems an officer appointed to enforce the chapter on a particular property to have the written authority of that property’s owner, without a written complaint each time. That is what makes ongoing enforcement possible rather than incident-by-incident.
- Fire routes. Municipal Code Chapter 1090. The Chief Fire Official designates the route, the owner is notified in writing and has thirty days to install signs, and the town installs them at the owner’s expense if the deadline passes. Signs are a minimum 30 cm by 45 cm, at intervals not exceeding 30 metres, mounted with the bottom no less than 2 metres and the top no more than 3 metres, set between 0.3 and 3 metres from the edge of the route, and must read fire route, parking prohibited, and vehicles will be tagged and/or towed away. The fire route fine is $200.
- Accessible parking. Section 1116.3.9 requires a properly displayed permit and a vehicle that is actually driven by or carrying the permit holder.
- Removal and cost recovery. Section 1116.5.4 allows removal from private property on written complaint, and section 1116.5.6 makes the cost a lien on the vehicle enforceable in the same manner as under the Repair and Storage Liens Act.
- Reporting to the town. bylaw@richmondhill.ca or 905-771-0198, with an after-hours urgent line at 905-771-5458 between 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. Anonymous reports are not actioned.
The after-hours line tells you something about how these files run. Richmond Hill will take an urgent call overnight, but a resident parked in a visitor stall is not an urgent municipal matter at two in the morning. It is a property matter, and it needs an operator who answers.
It costs the property nothing
There is no fee to the property owner or manager. No monthly charge, no per-tow invoice, nothing for signs or patrols. The cost of the tow is recovered from the owner of the vehicle that was parked illegally, which is the standard arrangement for private property towing across Ontario. Your operating budget is not part of this.
The rules we work under
- Tow operator certification. Ontario’s Towing and Storage Safety and Enforcement Act requires certified operators, with certificate numbers and company identification displayed on the truck.
- Property authorization. A vehicle only moves when the property owner or their named representative has authorized it in writing.
- Signage. Tow-away signs go up where a driver can read them on the way in, and we put our name and dispatch number on them so anyone whose vehicle is gone knows who to call. No Ontario municipality prescribes the wording, which is exactly why so many lots are covered in signs that answer nothing.
- Published rates and an itemized invoice. Certified operators file a maximum rate schedule with the Ministry of Transportation, cannot charge above it, and cannot charge for a service that is not on it. The vehicle owner gets an itemized invoice before payment is asked for.
- Reporting. Tows are reported, so a vehicle owner who finds an empty space knows immediately where their car went and who has it.
None of this is optional, and an operator who treats it as optional becomes a liability you inherit. Ask any towing company in Richmond Hill for their certificate number before you sign anything with them.
If your vehicle was towed in Richmond Hill
Call 647-219-1786 and we will tell you where your vehicle is, what is owed and what to bring. You will need proof of ownership and valid photo identification. We would rather you had your car back today than argue about it for a week, so the process is deliberately short.
Questions we get asked
How much does private property towing cost me as the owner or property manager in Richmond Hill?
Nothing. There is no charge to the property, no monthly fee and no contract minimum. Our costs are recovered from the owner of the towed vehicle, which is how private property towing works everywhere in Ontario. You are not invoiced for a tow, for signage, or for patrols.
Can I have a car towed from my Richmond Hill property immediately?
If your property is already set up with us, with authorization on file and compliant signage posted, then yes. Call and a truck is dispatched. If you are not set up yet we can usually have signage and paperwork in place within a couple of days, because towing a vehicle without proper authorization and posted signs is not enforceable.
What signs do I need on the lot?
Ontario requires clearly visible tow-away signage at the entrances and throughout the lot, stating that unauthorized vehicles will be removed at the vehicle owner’s expense, and showing the towing company’s name and telephone number. We supply and install the signs for Richmond Hill properties at no cost.
My car was towed in Richmond Hill. How do I get it back?
Call 647-219-1786. We will confirm where your vehicle is, what you need to bring and what is owed. You will need proof of ownership and valid identification. Every tow we perform is documented and reported, so the location of your vehicle is never a mystery.
Do you tow from underground and structured parking?
Yes. A large share of the Richmond Hill work we do is underground, in condominium and commercial garages with low clearance. We use equipment sized for those spaces rather than trying to force a standard flatbed into a garage it does not fit.
How quickly do you get there?
Most Richmond Hill calls are attended within the hour and dispatch runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fire route obstructions and accessible-space violations are treated as priority calls and go to the front of the queue.
Commuters fill our Yonge Street lot every weekday morning. Can you patrol mornings only?
Yes. For Richmond Hill properties near GO and Viva stops, a weekday morning patrol window usually clears the problem within two weeks because the same vehicles stop coming back.
Does our condominium board need a resident complaint before you tow?
No. If the board authorizes scheduled patrols in writing, we act on what we find in the fire routes, the visitor spaces and the reserved stalls without waiting for someone to call.
Get your Richmond Hill property covered
Setting up takes one conversation and a signature. Signage goes in, and after that the problem is ours instead of yours. Call 647-219-1786, where dispatch answers around the clock, or send us a message.
We also tow in
Vaughan · Woodbridge · Markham · King City · Newmarket · Brampton · Mississauga
See the full private property towing service area.