Strip of concrete in between boulevard and road. Who repairs?

It's called a curb.

If the Curb is damaged, call the City and inform them, assuming the right-of-way is public property.

Is the problem with the curb or the asphalt up against it? If the asphalt is low, is it the City side or your driveway which is lower?

Aside, its probably all concrete curb and gutter, and will need to stay that way. Generally speaking, it would have to be damaged to some degree as well before the City worries about it. Do you have any pics you could share?

Thanks. Ok now I know it's called the curb. Right now, this concrete is just cracked and "flaking" eg pieces of the top has cracked and flaked out into "rocks" but it's too dark for a pic.

No problem with the asphalt nor the road, just this "curb/indentation" is cracking/indented from the flaking -eg think of a crack that resulted in a rock that got carved out of the curb... Will just probably leave as is for now till it completely deteriorates I guess...

If city doesn't think it's a big deal, Maybe when I do asphalt repair in future I'll ask them to fix that part and see what they say (just not sure if it was my responsibility or city's)

I just noticed this "curb" prevents large flows of water draining from higher slopes from going up my driveway - don't know if that affects right of way - eg only my driveway is impacted by this curb, no other public property other than the road beside it to one side and my asphalt driveway on the other...

Many thanks again.

Typically the city's "right-of-way" extends beyond the curb line, and the city owns part of the boulevard. How much depends on how wide the width of the municipal road allowance is. People mistakenly thinks they own their property right up to the curb/edge of road, but they don't. If your side of the street has the sidewalk then it's easier to visualize as usually your property will start from the edge of the sidewalk to your house (the sidewalk is still consider public right-of-way).

The boulevard is designed to slope towards the road, so water from your front yard will drain towards the gutter, which is the bottom part of the curb.

some curbs may be the responsibility of the regional municipality instead of the city, depending on who the road is maintained by. not all roads in a city are managed and maintained by the actual city, some are regional roads

GoodFellaz wrote: ↑ some curbs may be the responsibility of the regional municipality instead of the city, depending on who the road is maintained by. not all roads in a city are managed and maintained by the actual city, some are regional roads

The "boulevard" is part of the owner's property title, with easements that give the city, utilities and their contractors right of ways for access and underground services. The curb is part of the roadway in most cases, specially in newer subdivisions. It's maintained and repaired by the mucipality (city/town or regional), unless it's part of a new subdivision that hasn't yet been assumed and the developer is on the hook.

BTW, if the municipality determines the damages to the curb to be negligence by the home owner, then they can ( not always do) bill back the costs to the home owner.

rvs007 wrote: ↑ Typically the city's "right-of-way" extends beyond the curb line, and the city owns part of the boulevard. How much depends on how wide the width of the municipal road allowance is. People mistakenly thinks they own their property right up to the curb/edge of road, but they don't. If your side of the street has the sidewalk then it's easier to visualize as usually your property will start from the edge of the sidewalk to your house (the sidewalk is still consider public right-of-way).

The boulevard is designed to slope towards the road, so water from your front yard will drain towards the gutter, which is the bottom part of the curb.

That is not entirely true. Let's not confuse easements with ownership of the title. The whole property within the survey is titled to the title holder, and easements from the edges of the roadway up to a reasonable width is granted to the city, utilities and their contractors for right of ways.

Also, individuals never "own" the land, it's crown land, with titles assigned to indiduals, be they persons or other entities. The crown can and will reposses at any time for just cause with appropriate compensation to the title holder. That is why mineral rights are not granted to title holder, if they find oil under the property, they can negotiate access rights, to get at it, but the title holder doesn't own the oil.

my0gr81 wrote: ↑ The "boulevard" is part of the owner's property title, with easements that give the city, utilities and their contractors right of ways for access and underground services. The curb is part of the roadway in most cases, specially in newer subdivisions. It's maintained and repaired by the mucipality (city/town or regional), unless it's part of a new subdivision that hasn't yet been assumed and the developer is on the hook.

Idk where you live or where you got this information from, but this is generally misleading.

There is the homeowners lot, and then there is the right-of-way or road allowance. This usually extends beyond the curb and contains the boulevard and the sidewalk as well as potentially more. Generally speaking your curb stop (water shut off valve) and sanitary clean out would be located on your property line, so you can figure out where you own usually roughly based on that location.

The right-of-way or road allowance is either owned by a municipality if it is public, or a condo corp (or the like) if it is private. If this is public land, there is generally no easements in it, and if its private usually the services will also be private, so again, most likely no easement. In some cases there will be easements, but I digress. If a public service, serving other lots than your own, crosses onto your property, than an easement would exist in this case.

In terms of the process of assumption, the maintenance period is required by the municipality and at this point the entire right-of-way/road allowance is still private, until at which a set point the municipality gives the all clear and takes ownership of the lands. This includes all lands within the right-of-way, so if any boulevard trees or sidewalks are damaged in their period, as they are part of the right-of-way, they would need to be repaired as well.

This has generally been the case for most places I've seen, granted there are some exceptions when it comes to old tiny streets and other special cases. Is there a specific City/region you are referring too?

In my area it also ends at the water shut off valve, which is a lot more than the sidewalk. My parents have an older home (1980) and it is more than half of their front yard (maybe 8 meters?). My house is newer (1998) and I would say it is about 2 meters from the street (no sidewalk).

I have always seen the city repair the curb or sidewalk, I don't believe you are allowed to work on it. It can be a safety issue so usually they don't wait when damage is reported. Unless it is obvious (ex: from equipment when doing renovations), I guess it would be very difficult to prove the homeowner is the reason of the damage (even more with salt used in the winter).

The curb is 99% public property. It's very rare that it isn't.

And do not fix it on your own, your contractors may be able to do it, but they may not do it properly and you can become liable for the cost if the government needs to fix it.

Like others said, call your City if you think the concrete curb is getting old and in need of repair.

my0gr81 wrote: ↑ That is not entirely true. Let's not confuse easements with ownership of the title. The whole property within the survey is titled to the title holder, and easements from the edges of the roadway up to a reasonable width is granted to the city, utilities and their contractors for right of ways.

Also, individuals never "own" the land, it's crown land, with titles assigned to indiduals, be they persons or other entities. The crown can and will reposses at any time for just cause with appropriate compensation to the title holder. That is why mineral rights are not granted to title holder, if they find oil under the property, they can negotiate access rights, to get at it, but the title holder doesn't own the oil.

You're the one confusing between easements and ownership. I don't know which part of Canada you're in so things might be different in your part of the world. But in the context of where the OP lives (west GTA), and from what the OP described as being the front of the house, let's just assume he lives in a traditional subdivision, where there are public road allowances, and private lots titled to the homeowners. What @SubjectivelyObjective explained is correct. The road, the curb and the boulevard beyond the curb are part of what the municipality will own. That is considered the "municipal right-of-way," or "public road allowance". Underground, everything from the city's sewers, watermains and public utilities is supposed to be located within this right-of-way. Aboveground, the road, the gutters, curbs, light poles, utility boxes, and sidewalks, are also part of the public right-of-way. What I tried to note in my previous post is that there is a common misconception by homeowners that they own the land right up to the curb, which in most cases, isn't true. The homeowner's property line is quite a distance away from the curb.

I can think of some specific instances where what you described could be true. For example, in places where there are rear laneways, where the public road allowance might be so narrow that the curblines are effectively the edge of the road allowance. In that case, some public utilities and services might need to be installed in an easement because it can't be located in the roadway (e.g. hydro transformers, light poles, etc.)

JEDI Force wrote: ↑ In my area it also ends at the water shut off valve, which is a lot more than the sidewalk. My parents have an older home (1980) and it is more than half of their front yard (maybe 8 meters?). My house is newer (1998) and I would say it is about 2 meters from the street (no sidewalk).

The reason for this is that while the width of the pavement portion for residential local roads has remained fairly consistent, the width of road allowances/rights-of-way have shrunk considerably, which means the width of the boulevards have also shrunk, which you are noticing with the placement of the water shut-off valve relative to the curb.