Avion Law serves clients across the City of Toronto from offices in Etobicoke — a short drive from every corner of the city on the Gardiner Expressway, the 427, or the Bloor line. Real estate closings, wills and estates, family law, civil matters, and notarial services, all handled with the attention and precision that consequential matters deserve.
The City of Toronto is not one city but a federation of former municipalities — the old City of Toronto, East York, North York, Scarborough, York, and our own Etobicoke — amalgamated by provincial legislation in 1998 and now administered as a single municipality under the City of Toronto Act, 2006. For most practical legal purposes, that amalgamation matters because of a handful of things the City does differently: its Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT) on real estate, its property-tax regime, its by-laws governing everything from short-term rentals to home-based businesses, and the specific way provincial statutes are administered by City offices.
A lawyer who regularly handles Toronto matters knows when those differences matter and when they don't. For residential real estate — easily the firm's highest-volume Toronto work — the MLTT difference is material. A buyer purchasing a home in Etobicoke or Scarborough pays two layers of land transfer tax; a buyer purchasing in Mississauga, Vaughan, or anywhere else in the GTA pays only one. First-time buyers in Toronto qualify for two separate rebates. Those calculations are a standard part of every Toronto closing we handle.
Residential closings are the firm's core Toronto practice. The typical Toronto file includes a detached home in Scarborough, a semi in Bloor West, a condominium downtown, or a multi-unit property in the Annex — each with its own standard documentation and its own quirks. Our flat-fee structure applies across the city: the price to close a purchase in Rosedale is the same as the price to close a purchase in Rexdale, because the legal work is the same regardless of the value of the home. Disbursements vary with the property (LTT is computed on the purchase price; title insurance premiums reflect the coverage amount), but the legal fee itself is fixed and disclosed in writing before we start.
Toronto condominium closings deserve particular attention. A condominium purchase requires review of a status certificate under section 76 of the Condominium Act, 1998 — a package that discloses the condominium corporation's financial health, any outstanding special assessments, any material litigation, and a range of other matters that affect the unit. A lawyer who closes Toronto condo purchases regularly knows which red flags to chase and which are standard. That review is included in our flat fee.
For many Toronto families, the home is the largest asset, and the combination of a valuable property, blended families, and the tax consequences of transferring wealth across generations makes careful estate planning essential. Our estate planning work for Toronto clients addresses the standard elements — a properly executed will, a Continuing Power of Attorney for Property, and a Power of Attorney for Personal Care — while also thinking through the specifics that actually affect a Toronto household: the principal-residence exemption on the family home, the treatment of a cottage or investment property outside the City, the designation of beneficiaries on registered accounts, and the choice of an estate trustee who can actually do the job competently.
When a Toronto resident dies, the estate is administered under the Estates Act and, where probate is required, a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee is applied for through the Toronto office of the Superior Court of Justice. We handle probate applications for Toronto estates on a flat-fee basis where the estate is straightforward, and on a quoted basis where complexity warrants it.
Family law matters are governed by the same statutes regardless of where in Ontario the parties live — the federal Divorce Act and the provincial Family Law Act. Toronto cases, though, are adjudicated in the Superior Court of Justice's Family Branch at 393 University Avenue (for Toronto residents) or in the Ontario Court of Justice at various locations across the city, depending on the relief sought. We advise Toronto clients on separation, parenting arrangements, support (child and spousal), and the division of property; we draft separation agreements, marriage contracts, and cohabitation agreements; and we prepare the foreign divorce opinion letters required for Toronto residents who married abroad and need to remarry here.
Toronto's international character makes notarial and apostille services a steady part of the practice. Every major consulate in Canada maintains a presence in Toronto, and clients — whether recent immigrants needing documents authenticated for use abroad, Canadians working overseas, or businesses trading internationally — regularly require documents notarized, apostilled, and in many cases translated. Since Canada joined the Hague Apostille Convention in January 2024, the process has been materially simplified. We handle the notarization, coordinate the apostille through Ontario's Official Documents Services, and work with certified translators where the documents are in a language other than English or French.
Our office is at 89 Skyway Avenue in Etobicoke, two minutes from Pearson International Airport and accessible from every major highway serving the city — the 427, the 401, the Gardiner, and the 409. For clients in downtown Toronto, east-end Toronto, or the inner suburbs, we are typically between fifteen and thirty-five minutes away depending on traffic; for clients in west-end neighbourhoods like High Park, Bloor West Village, or The Junction, we are ten minutes or less. Parking is free on-site, which is an increasingly rare amenity in Toronto legal practice. Remote consultations by video are also available where convenient.