Brochure: Amendments, Reviews and Appeals

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This brochure explains your options if you believe there is something incorrect in an LTB order. There are three ways to request that an order of the LTB be reconsidered or changed. You can:

Who can file a request to amend or a request to review an order?

In general, you can only make a request to amend or review an order if you are an applicant or respondent. Your lawyer or representative could also make the request on your behalf.

However, if you are not a party to an application but you are directly affected by the order, you can file a request as a "potential party". An LTB member will decide whether or not you are a party.

Request to Amend an Order

If you think there is a mistake in the order, such as a misspelled name or address or an incorrect calculation, you can make a Request to Amend an Order. This type of mistake is called a clerical error. The member who wrote the order could have made the clerical error, or it could have been made by the applicant in the application.

A Request to Amend an Order is reviewed by the member who made the decision. The member may do any of the following:

When a member corrects an order, they issue an amended order, which is mailed to the parties and their representatives. The amended order replaces the original order.

Deadline to make a Request to Amend an Order

The deadline to make a Request to Amend an Order is 30 days after the date the order was issued. If you make a request after the 30 day deadline, you must also file a Request to Extend or Shorten Time.

There is no fee to make these requests.

Request to Review an Order

You can make this request if you think that there is a serious error in an order, or that a serious error occurred in the LTB's proceedings. The Request to Review an Order is not an opportunity to have your matter heard a second time if you don't agree with the decision.

The following are examples of what could be considered serious errors:

A person can only make one request to review an order. This means that if the LTB denies your Request to Review an Order, you can't make another request to have the same order reviewed.

There is a $55 fee to file a Request to Review an Order.

Deadline to make a Request to Review an Order

The deadline to make a Request to Review an Order is 30 days after the date the order was issued. If you make a request after the 30-day deadline, you must also file a Request to Extend or Shorten Time.

What happens when a Request to Review an Order is filed?

Any member, including the member who made the order you are asking to have reviewed, could be assigned to conduct the review hearing. The member will decide if a serious error may have occurred. If the member does not believe that a serious error may have occurred, the member will deny the request. The member will explain in writing the reasons why.

If the member believes that a serious error may have occurred, there will be a review hearing. At the hearing, the parties present their position and their evidence.

After the hearing, if the member finds that there is no serious error in the order, the member will deny the request to review. In this case the original order does not change.

If the member finds that there is a serious error in the order, the member will decide which issues should be reviewed, hear those issues, and then either confirm, vary, suspend or cancel the order. The member will write a new order to explain the decision, and this new order will replace the original one.

Sometimes the LTB may decide on its own to hold a review hearing even if no Request to Review an Order has been made. This is called a "Board Initiated Review".

Stays

If you make a Request to Amend an Order or a Request to Review an Order, you can also ask for a stay of the order. When an order is stayed, it cannot be enforced.

The member must consider the effect that staying the order will have on the parties and make a decision to either grant or deny the stay.

For example, if a tenant requests a review of an order for eviction and also requests a stay of the order, the member might decide to stay the order because of the impact on the tenant if they were evicted.

A stay is usually issued in the form of an "Interim Order". This type of order may have conditions for one or both parties to fulfill, or it may simply indicate that an order has been stayed.

Once a hearing has been held, the member hearing the request will either remove the stay so that the order can be enforced or write a new order that cancels and replaces the previous one.

An appeal to the Divisional Court automatically stays the LTB's order until the court makes a decision on the appeal. In some cases, the court may order the stay lifted before making a final decision.

Appealing an Order to Divisional Court

If you believe that that an LTB order contains an error in law, you can appeal it to the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice. An error in law is when the LTB member incorrectly interprets or applies the Residential Tenancies Act.

The deadline to appeal an LTB order to the Divisional Court is 30 days after you receive the order. If the 30-day deadline has passed, you can bring a motion to the Divisional Court requesting an extension of time. You do not have to file a Request to Review an Order with the LTB before you appeal to Divisional Court.

If you appeal an order, you must send a copy of the appeal documents to the LTB.

The Landlord and Tenant Board does not provide information regarding the Divisional Court appeal process. If you are planning to file an appeal, read the Guide to Appeals in Divisional Court and contact the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, or seek legal advice.


Contact the Landlord and Tenant Board


Call us:
Toll free: 1-888-332-3234
Toronto area: 416-645-8080
TTY: Bell Relay Service at 1-800-268-9242 Visit our website at tribunalsontario.ca/ltb
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Last updated: June 2019