Asking the LTB to Review Its Order: A Step-by-Step Guide for Landlords and Tenants in Ontario

When the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) makes a final order, a party who believes something went badly wrong can ask the Board to take a second look using its Request to Review an Order form. Tenants commonly reach for it when an eviction is looming. Landlords use it after being shut out of a hearing or hit with a badly flawed order — and they're frequently the ones responding when a tenant files. Either way, the window is short and the grounds are narrow.

Quick summary

What a review can and can't do

Orders bind the parties and are final — subject only to the Board's own review power (RTA s. 209). O. Reg. 178/26, in force from July 1, 2026, confines that power to three situations (Interpretation Guideline 8; Rule 26.8). Your request has to fit one of them.

Ground 1 — you couldn't reasonably take part, because of one of these listed reasons:

• notice of the hearing or the issues fell short;
• the Board contributed to what went wrong;
• you were misled by the other side;
• a serious emergency — you or a close family member seriously ill, injured or in hospital, or a close family member died;
• you were in custody or lacked capacity;
• a natural disaster or comparable event.

Ground 2 — a serious error, meaning the LTB:

• exceeded its jurisdiction or seriously breached procedural fairness;
• erred on law, fact, or mixed fact and law;
• awarded a remedy far from the norm; or
• issued terms nobody can enforce.

Ground 3 — new evidence. Three tests: the Board never saw it, it was unobtainable before the order, and it would likely have changed the result.

What a review is not: an appeal, or a chance to run a better case. Per Guideline 8, the error needs a material effect on the result; requests amounting to "I disagree" usually end at the first screening.

Pick the right tool

Counting your 15 days

1. Find the issue date printed on the order. The clock starts there, not when the order reached you.
2. Check which limit applies: July 1, 2026 onward → 15 (RTA s. 209(3); Rule 26.5); before → 30 (Rule 26.4).
3. Count calendar days, skipping day zero (the issue date) and including the final day.
4. Final day a weekend or LTB closure? Roll forward to the next business day (Rules 1.12–1.14).

Past the deadline? File the review together with a deadline extension request (Rule 16.2, Rule 26.6). Sent alone, Guideline 8 says, the extension request goes nowhere.

Filling in the form (version 2026/07)

Start with the official instructions.

Step 1 — Part 1: General Information. Your role (landlord / tenant / co-op / other), your name and company if any, contact details, and your choice of mail or email for correspondence. Give the rental unit's complete address and the other side's details. More parties? Use the Schedule of Parties form.

Step 2 — Part 2: Reason for Your Request. Write the order's file number and the date it was issued (dd/mm/yyyy). Tick each ground that fits and the numbered reason beneath it. The explanation box is where you prove the ground with facts and state the change you want.

• Length: up to 10 pages, double-spaced, 12-point, roughly a 40 mm left margin. Evidence and case law don't count toward that (Rule 26.7).
• Proof: include it — for example medical documentation, evidence that notice was emailed to a wrong address, or the document that has just surfaced.

Step 3 — Stay, or lifting a stay. For a pause on enforcement, tick the stay box and spell out the damage that enforcing now would do. Under appeal already? The second box asks the LTB to remove the appeal stay — give your reasons.

Step 4 — Part 3: Signature. Sign as the requester or the representative and date it. Representatives add a Law Society number and contact details. Then fill in the payment page.

Sending it in

Route the forms page lists — email:

1. Pay the $58 on the online payment page.
2. Email the form plus receipt to LTBpayments@ontario.ca.
3. Subject line: your seven-digit receipt number.

Other routes in the instructions: ServiceOntario; or mail/courier, paying by certified cheque or money order (payee: Minister of Finance) or by card on the Credit Card Payment Form.

Never put card numbers in an email; the LTB deletes those messages. If you qualify, ask for a fee waiver. Serving the other side happens only on the LTB's direction (Guideline 8), and then you'd file proof of service.

Checklist before you file

Tenants:

• [ ] Within 15 days of issue (or an extension request attached)
• [ ] A ground ticked, with the numbered reason
• [ ] Proof attached (medical note, evidence you never got notice, the new document)
• [ ] Stay box ticked if an eviction is coming, with the harm explained
• [ ] Fee paid or waiver requested

Landlords:

• [ ] Same deadline, ground and proof checks if you are filing
• [ ] If a tenant filed: read the stay request, and have your evidence and witnesses ready in case a hearing starts right away
• [ ] If the order voided an eviction without a hearing, use an S3 instead

Why review requests get turned down

1. Relying on 30 days. Fifteen is the limit for orders from July 1, 2026; a late filing lacking an extension request risks dismissal at the first screening (Rule 26.9).
2. Basics missing. Skipping the prescribed circumstance, the order number or the address, or going over 10 pages, breaches Rules 26.7–26.8; refusal can follow (Rule 26.8.1).
3. Re-arguing the case. "The Member believed the tenant" isn't a serious error. Under Guideline 8, findings of fact receive considerable deference.
4. Claims without proof. Illness with no medical note, or "I never got it" with nothing to back it up, rarely gets past the preliminary review.
5. "New" evidence that isn't new. If it was available for the hearing, or happened afterward, it doesn't qualify.
6. No fee. No $58 and no waiver approval, no processing.
7. Saving a ground for later. Rule 26.18 allows a party a single review of any given order — use every ground at once.

What happens after you file

• Preliminary review, on paper (Rule 26.9). Possible results: dismissal, more time, or a review hearing — plus interim orders, a stay among them.
• Stays protect against irreversible harm and can be conditional; arrears cases may require the tenant to pay arrears as the price of the stay (Guideline 8). A stayed eviction order must be taken to the Court Enforcement Office by the party who obtained the stay (Rule 25.3).
• Review hearing. If granted, it usually proceeds straight away, so evidence and witnesses should be ready (Rule 26.16).
• Outcome. The order may be confirmed, varied, suspended or cancelled (Rule 26.17), and the review fee may be refunded (RTA s. 182).

What changed on July 1, 2026

Through Bill 60, orders from that day forward got a 15-day review window instead of 30 (RTA s. 209(3)). O. Reg. 178/26 replaced the former broad "serious error" standard with the three circumstances above. New versions followed for the form (2026/07), instructions (July 2026), Rule 26 and Guideline 8.

Questions people ask

What's my deadline to ask for a review?

Orders from July 1, 2026: fifteen days from issue. Earlier orders: thirty. Running late? Send a Request to Extend Deadline along with the review request and explain why.

Will asking for a review stop the eviction?

Not by itself. Ask for a stay on the form; the LTB decides that during the preliminary review, possibly with conditions, and the resulting stay order must be delivered to the Court Enforcement Office.

Review or Divisional Court appeal — which one?

Appeals: legal questions only, 30 days to start (RTA s. 210). Reviews: the three prescribed circumstances, so missed hearings and factual errors fit. An appeal's automatic stay can freeze a review until lifted — get legal advice before pursuing both.

My review was dismissed. Can I file another?

No. Rule 26.18 bars a second request by that party about the same order or about the review order.

Official sources

• Request to Review an Order form (PDF)
• Instructions: Request to Review an Order
• Interpretation Guideline 8: Review of an Order
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rule 26
• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 209–210
• LTB Operational Update, July 1, 2026 changes
• LTB Forms, filing and fees

Last reviewed October 31, 2026. General information, not legal advice for your situation. Always use the current version of the form from the LTB.