Small Claims Court or the
Landlord and Tenant Board?

By Jonathan Kleiman, Barrister & Solicitor · Published June 2026

One of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes I see in landlord and tenant disputes has nothing to do with the merits of the case. It is filing in the wrong place. Ontario has two completely separate forums that hear landlord and tenant matters: the Landlord and Tenant Board and Small Claims Court. They look similar from the outside, but they do very different jobs, and walking up to the wrong door can cost you months and your filing fee.

The short version is this. The Landlord and Tenant Board, under the Residential Tenancies Act, has exclusive jurisdiction over most disputes that arise from an active residential tenancy — evictions, rent arrears while the tenant is still in the unit, repairs, illegal entry, and similar matters. Small Claims Court handles money and civil claims that fall outside the Act or arise after a residential tenancy has ended. And commercial tenancies are not a Board matter at all — they go to court.

Below I will walk through how to tell which forum your dispute belongs in, the situations I see most often, the mistakes that cost people the most, and a simple framework you can run through before you file. None of this is legal advice about your specific matter, and the line can be genuinely subtle — so my single most important recommendation is to confirm the correct forum before you spend a dollar or a day on the wrong one.

What "Small Claims or the Board" really comes down to

When someone asks me whether their landlord or tenant dispute is a Small Claims matter or a Board matter, I do not start with the dollar amount. I start with three questions: does the Residential Tenancies Act apply, is the tenancy active or ended, and is it residential or commercial? Those three questions decide almost everything.

The reason the forum matters so much is that the Landlord and Tenant Board has exclusive jurisdiction over most active residential tenancy disputes. "Exclusive" is the key word. It does not mean you get to choose between the Board and the court — it means the court generally cannot hear the matter at all, because the legislature handed it to the Board. So if your dispute is an active residential one, Small Claims Court is not an option you are leaving on the table; it is a door that is closed.

Small Claims Court, by contrast, is a money-claims forum. It hears civil disputes up to $50,000. In the landlord and tenant world, it generally comes into play when the Residential Tenancies Act is not in the picture — either because the tenancy was commercial, or because a residential tenancy has already ended and you are now pursuing a debt or a damage claim the Board can no longer hear.

Get this distinction right and the rest of the process is straightforward. Get it wrong and you can spend months pushing a case in a forum that has no power to decide it, only to be told to start over somewhere else — sometimes after a deadline has quietly run out.

Why can't I just pick the forum I prefer?

Because jurisdiction is not a matter of preference. When a statute gives a tribunal exclusive jurisdiction over a category of dispute, the courts respect that boundary. A landlord who would rather deal with a judge than the Board cannot simply file an active residential matter in Small Claims Court to avoid the Board — the court will generally decline to hear it. The forum is dictated by what kind of dispute you have, not by which process feels more comfortable.

From my experience

From my experience, the landlords and tenants who get into trouble are almost never the ones with a weak case. They are the ones who guessed at the forum. I have seen a residential landlord, frustrated by an unpaid tenant, try to "sue for the rent" in Small Claims Court while the tenant was still living in the unit — and lose months before learning that arrears for a sitting tenant are a Board matter. The claim itself was perfectly good. It was simply in the wrong building.

The opposite happens too. A commercial landlord, hearing that there is a tribunal for "landlord and tenant" disputes, assumes the Board will handle a dispute over an office lease. It will not. Commercial tenancies sit entirely outside the Residential Tenancies Act, and the Board has no authority over them. That landlord needs a court, governed by the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act, not the Board.

The cleanest cases I handle are the ones where someone pauses before filing and asks the boring question first: which forum does this belong in? That one question, answered correctly, prevents the most common and most avoidable problem in this whole area. It costs nothing to ask, and getting it wrong can cost the case.

What the law generally says

Let me set out the general framework. I will keep it hedged on purpose, because the boundaries are fact-specific and you should confirm where your particular matter lands before relying on any of it.

The Landlord and Tenant Board (the LTB). Under the Residential Tenancies Act (the RTA), the Board has exclusive jurisdiction over most disputes arising from an active residential tenancy. That covers evictions, rent arrears while the tenant is still in the unit, maintenance and repair issues, illegal entry, harassment, deposit disputes, and similar RTA matters. These generally cannot be taken to Small Claims Court instead. And critically, only the Board can order a residential eviction — no court will do that for you.

Small Claims Court. This forum handles money and civil claims that fall outside the RTA, or that arise after a residential tenancy has ended. The classic example is suing a former tenant for property damage beyond normal wear and tear, or pursuing amounts owed once the tenant has moved out and the Board process no longer applies — up to the $50,000 Small Claims limit. Small Claims is broad, but it is not unlimited, and it is a common misconception that you can sue anyone for anything there; an active residential tenancy is a good example of a dispute that lives elsewhere. The line between "still an RTA matter" and "now a civil claim" can be subtle and fact-specific, which is exactly why I urge people to confirm it.

Commercial tenancies. These are not governed by the RTA and are not handled by the Board at all. A commercial landlord-tenant dispute is governed by the terms of the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act, and it goes to Small Claims Court (up to $50,000) or the Superior Court of Justice, depending on the amount and the relief sought. If you run a business from the space, you are almost certainly in the commercial stream.

The dollar figures. Both forums now reach into the tens of thousands. Small Claims Court handles claims up to $50,000. The Board's monetary jurisdiction was aligned upward in the 2025 changes, so it can order larger amounts than it once could. I deliberately keep the exact Board cap general here — it is the kind of figure worth confirming against the current rules rather than trusting a remembered number. The practical takeaway is that the right forum is no longer decided by the dollar amount; it is decided by whether the RTA applies and whether the tenancy is active.

Time limits. Board applications generally have their own deadlines — often within one year of the event in question — and Small Claims claims are subject to the usual limitation period. Both matter, because a wrong-forum detour can burn the time you needed to file properly. You can sanity check your civil deadline with the Ontario limitation period calculator, but for Board deadlines specifically, confirm the current rule.

Common situations I see

Most landlord and tenant disputes I am asked about fall into a handful of recurring patterns. Here is how each one generally sorts.

Rent arrears while the tenant is still in the unit → the Board. A residential tenant has stopped paying and is still living there. The landlord wants the rent, and often the eviction too. This is squarely a Landlord and Tenant Board matter under the RTA. Small Claims Court is not the route here, and it cannot order the eviction regardless.

Suing a former tenant for damage after move-out → often Small Claims. The residential tenant has moved out and left damage beyond normal wear and tear. Because the tenancy has ended, this is frequently a civil claim you can bring in Small Claims Court, up to $50,000. The timing is what shifts it out of the Board's lane — but confirm it, because some post-tenancy claims still belong at the Board within its own deadlines.

A commercial lease dispute → Small Claims or Superior Court, not the Board. An office, retail, or industrial tenant and landlord are fighting over rent, repairs, or the terms of the lease. The Board has no role. This goes to court, governed by the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act. If you are reviewing or fighting over the terms themselves, my commercial lease review checklist is a useful starting point, and a commercial lease lawyer can help you read the document that actually governs the dispute.

A tenant suing over a withheld deposit or illegal entry → usually the Board. A residential tenant believes the landlord wrongly kept a deposit, entered without proper notice, or failed to maintain the unit. While the RTA applies and the tenancy is live, these are generally Board matters, not Small Claims claims. The tenant's instinct to "sue the landlord" is understandable, but the forum is usually the Board.

A decision framework: the Board or Small Claims?

When a landlord or tenant calls me unsure where to file, I walk them through the same short sequence of questions. Run through these in order and most disputes sort themselves out.

• Is the tenancy residential or commercial? If it is commercial — an office, a store, a unit run as a business — stop here. You are not at the Board. The dispute goes to Small Claims Court or the Superior Court under the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act.
• Does the Residential Tenancies Act apply? Most residential rentals are covered, but some living arrangements are excluded from the RTA. If the Act does not apply, the Board generally does not either, and a civil court may be the forum. This is worth confirming, not assuming.
• Is the residential tenancy active or ended? If the tenant is still in the unit and the dispute arises from the live tenancy — rent, repairs, eviction, entry — it is almost certainly a Board matter. If the tenancy has ended and you are chasing money or damages, Small Claims Court may be the right forum.
• Are you trying to evict? A residential eviction can only come from the Board. If eviction is any part of what you want, you are at the Board, period.
• Is it purely a money claim that the RTA no longer governs? If the answer is yes — a former tenant, a commercial dispute, a debt outside the Act — Small Claims Court is generally the forum, up to its $50,000 limit.

If you run that sequence and still cannot tell, that uncertainty is itself the signal to get advice before filing. The genuinely close cases — a recently ended tenancy, an arrears claim straddling the move-out, an arrangement that may or may not be covered by the RTA — are exactly where a wrong guess costs the most.

Important things to check before you file

Before you fill out a single form, I would confirm three things. Each one points you to a forum, and getting any of them wrong sends you to the wrong place.

Is the RTA in play? The Residential Tenancies Act is the dividing line between the Board's world and the court's world. If the Act governs the relationship, think Board. If it does not — commercial space, certain excluded living arrangements — think court. When you are not sure whether the Act applies, that is a question to confirm, not to assume your way past.

Is the tenancy active or ended? Timing changes the forum. The same dispute — say, money owed — can be a Board matter while the tenant is in the unit and a Small Claims matter after they have moved out. Be precise about where you sit on that timeline, because it is often the deciding fact.

Is it residential or commercial? This is the cleanest line of the three. Residential tenancies live at the Board (when active) and in Small Claims (after they end). Commercial tenancies never touch the Board at all. If you are dealing with a property you manage or own across both residential and commercial units, you may genuinely have matters in two different forums at once.

Common mistakes

A few errors come up again and again in this area, and each one is avoidable with a moment's thought before filing.

Filing in the wrong forum. This is the headline mistake, and it is more than an inconvenience. Because the Board's jurisdiction over active residential matters is exclusive, a court will generally not hear those disputes — and vice versa, the Board has no power over commercial ones. A wrong filing can mean dismissal, a lost fee, and a restart elsewhere, sometimes after a deadline has passed.

Suing a current residential tenant in Small Claims Court. While the tenant is still in the unit, rent arrears and most other disputes belong at the Board. Trying to run them through Small Claims Court is a frequent and costly misstep. The claim may be sound; the forum is wrong.

Trying to evict through Small Claims Court. Small Claims Court cannot order a residential eviction. Only the Board can. I have seen landlords lose real time believing a court could hand them possession of the unit. It cannot — that power belongs to the Board alone.

Assuming the Board handles commercial disputes. The word "tenant" misleads people. The Board is a residential tribunal. Commercial disputes are governed by the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act and belong in court.

Missing the deadline during a wrong-forum detour. Board applications often must be brought within a set time. If you spend months in the wrong forum, you may discover the window to file correctly has closed. That is the quiet way a wrong-forum mistake turns into a lost claim.

What happens in each forum

The two forums feel different in practice, and knowing what to expect helps you prepare for the right one.

The Landlord and Tenant Board. The Board is an administrative tribunal, not a court. A landlord or tenant files an application, the matter is scheduled for a hearing before an adjudicator, and both sides present their evidence. Hearings are designed to be accessible without a lawyer, and the Board can order remedies specific to residential tenancies — including, where appropriate, an eviction, which no court can grant. Scheduling and wait times at the Board have been a real-world concern in recent years, so factor that in.

Small Claims Court. This is a court, with a streamlined civil process: you file a Plaintiff's Claim, serve the defendant, and — if the matter is defended — proceed through a mandatory settlement conference and, if it does not settle, a trial, with money and damages up to $50,000. My guide on how to sue in Small Claims Court in Ontario walks through the mechanics, and when to use Small Claims Court covers the kinds of disputes it is built for.

Which forum is faster or cheaper?

People often ask me which forum is the better deal. The honest answer is that it is not a choice you usually get to make — the nature of your dispute decides the forum for you. Both are designed to be accessible without representation, and where one is genuinely faster than the other varies with current scheduling. Pick the one with jurisdiction; that is the only choice that actually holds up.

Settlement considerations

Whichever forum applies, most landlord and tenant disputes are better resolved by agreement than by a contested hearing — and both forums build settlement into the process. At the Board, mediation is often available and many matters resolve before a full hearing. In Small Claims Court, the mandatory settlement conference exists precisely to broker a deal before trial, and in my experience most defended cases end there.

Settlement matters even more when the forum question is genuinely close. If you and the other side can resolve the underlying problem — the unpaid amount, the damage, the disputed deposit — you may never need a definitive answer on which tribunal had jurisdiction. A negotiated resolution can also include payment terms, which is often what both sides actually want.

That said, do not let settlement talks run out a filing deadline. If the other side is stringing you along, confirm your forum and your time limit, and be ready to file in the right place if the negotiation stalls. Settling is the goal; missing your window while you try is the trap.

Key takeaways

• Active residential tenancy disputes go to the Board. Evictions, rent arrears while the tenant is in the unit, repairs, and illegal entry are exclusive Landlord and Tenant Board matters under the RTA — Small Claims Court generally cannot hear them.
• Only the Board can evict a residential tenant. No court, including Small Claims Court, can order a residential eviction. If eviction is any part of your goal, you are at the Board.
• Small Claims is for money claims outside the RTA or after the tenancy ends. Suing a former tenant for damage after move-out, or chasing a debt the Board can no longer hear, often belongs in Small Claims Court, up to $50,000.
• Commercial tenancies are never a Board matter. They are governed by the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act and go to Small Claims Court or the Superior Court.
• Confirm the forum before you file. The line is fact-specific, the wrong forum means dismissal and wasted fees, and a wrong-forum detour can blow a deadline. When in doubt, check first.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sue my landlord in Small Claims Court in Ontario?

It depends on whether your tenancy is residential and still active. While the Residential Tenancies Act applies, most disputes with your landlord — illegal entry, a withheld deposit, repairs, harassment — belong at the Landlord and Tenant Board, not Small Claims Court. The Board has exclusive jurisdiction over those matters. Small Claims Court generally comes into play only where the RTA does not apply, such as a commercial tenancy, or where the residential tenancy has already ended and you are pursuing a money claim the Board can no longer hear. Confirm the forum before you file — picking the wrong one wastes time and fees.

Can a landlord sue a tenant in Small Claims Court?

Sometimes, but not for the things people assume. While a residential tenant is still in the unit, claims like rent arrears and damage are Landlord and Tenant Board matters, not Small Claims. A landlord generally turns to Small Claims Court after the residential tenancy has ended — for example, suing a former tenant for property damage beyond normal wear and tear once they have moved out and the Board process no longer applies. Commercial landlords are different: their disputes are not Board matters at all and usually go to Small Claims Court or the Superior Court. Confirm which applies before filing.

What does the Landlord and Tenant Board handle?

The Landlord and Tenant Board, under the Residential Tenancies Act, has exclusive jurisdiction over most disputes arising from an active residential tenancy. That includes evictions, rent arrears while the tenant is still in the unit, maintenance and repair problems, illegal entry, harassment, and applications about deposits and similar RTA issues. Only the Board can order a residential eviction — no court can do that for you. Because its jurisdiction is exclusive over these matters, you generally cannot take them to Small Claims Court instead. The Board does not handle commercial tenancies, which fall outside the RTA entirely.

Can I evict a tenant through Small Claims Court in Ontario?

No — not a residential tenant. Only the Landlord and Tenant Board can order a residential eviction under the Residential Tenancies Act, and trying to accomplish that through Small Claims Court is one of the more common and costly mistakes I see landlords make. Small Claims Court is a money-claims forum; it has no power to grant a residential eviction. If your tenant is residential and still in the unit, the eviction route runs through the Board, full stop. Commercial tenancies follow different rules under the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act, so confirm which kind of tenancy you have before you take any step.

Can I sue a former tenant for damage in Small Claims Court?

Often, yes. Once a residential tenancy has ended and the tenant has moved out, a claim for property damage beyond normal wear and tear is frequently a Small Claims Court matter rather than a Landlord and Tenant Board one, because the Board process generally no longer applies after the tenancy is over. You can claim up to the $50,000 Small Claims limit. The line can be subtle and fact-specific — timing matters, and some claims must still go to the Board within its own time limits — so confirm the correct forum before you file, and gather your evidence of the damage and its cost early.

What about unpaid rent after the tenant moved out?

This is one of the trickier lines. Rent arrears while a residential tenant is still in the unit are a Landlord and Tenant Board matter. But once the tenancy has ended and the tenant has moved out, amounts owed may become a civil claim you can pursue in Small Claims Court, because the Board process no longer applies. The catch is that the Board also has its own time limits for arrears applications, and the boundary is genuinely fact-specific. I always recommend confirming the forum — and any applicable deadline — before filing, because guessing wrong here means dismissal and lost fees.

Is a commercial lease dispute a Landlord and Tenant Board matter?

No. Commercial tenancies are not governed by the Residential Tenancies Act and are not handled by the Landlord and Tenant Board at all. A commercial landlord-tenant dispute is governed by the terms of the lease and the Commercial Tenancies Act, and it goes to Small Claims Court (up to the $50,000 limit) or the Superior Court of Justice, depending on the amount and the relief sought. This surprises people who assume the Board covers everything called a tenancy. If your space is commercial — an office, a store, a unit you run a business from — the Board is the wrong door. Confirm the forum before you act.

How much can the Landlord and Tenant Board or Small Claims Court award now?

Both forums now reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. Small Claims Court handles money claims up to $50,000. The Landlord and Tenant Board's monetary jurisdiction was aligned upward in the 2025 changes, so it can order larger amounts than it once could. I keep the exact Board figure general on purpose, because it is the kind of number worth confirming against the current rules rather than relying on a remembered cap. The practical point is that the right forum is no longer decided by the dollar amount alone — it is decided by whether the Residential Tenancies Act applies and whether the tenancy is active.

What happens if I file in the wrong place?

Filing in the wrong forum can mean dismissal, delay, and wasted filing fees. If you bring an active residential tenancy dispute to Small Claims Court, the court generally cannot hear it because the Landlord and Tenant Board has exclusive jurisdiction — and you may have to start over at the Board, possibly after a deadline has passed. The reverse mistake happens too: trying to run a commercial dispute through the Board, which has no power over it. Because Board applications often have their own time limits, a wrong-forum detour can cost you the claim entirely. Confirm the correct forum before you file.

Do I need a lawyer or paralegal?

Not necessarily — both the Landlord and Tenant Board and Small Claims Court are designed to be accessible without representation, and many people handle their own matters. That said, the value of advice is highest at exactly the question this article is about: which forum applies. Getting that wrong is expensive. Licensed paralegals can represent you at the Board and in Small Claims Court, and lawyers can too. For a straightforward claim you may not need anyone; where the residential-versus-commercial or active-versus-ended line is unclear, a short consultation to confirm the forum is usually money well spent.

Final thoughts

The Small-Claims-versus-the-Board question feels like a technicality, but it is the single decision that most often determines whether a landlord or tenant dispute goes smoothly or turns into a wasted detour. The framework is not complicated: active residential tenancy disputes belong at the Landlord and Tenant Board, which has exclusive jurisdiction over them; money claims that fall outside the Residential Tenancies Act or arise after a residential tenancy ends go to Small Claims Court; and commercial tenancies never go to the Board at all.

Where it gets genuinely tricky is at the edges — a tenancy that recently ended, an arrears claim that straddles a move-out, an arrangement that may or may not be covered by the Act. Those are the cases where I most strongly recommend confirming the forum before filing, because the cost of guessing wrong is not just inconvenience; it can be a dismissed claim and a missed deadline.

If you are a landlord or tenant and you are not sure which door to walk through, that uncertainty is worth a short conversation. Call 416-554-1639 or book a free consultation, and we can confirm where your matter belongs before you spend time or money in the wrong place.