What is the difference between requesting an LTB review and appealing to court in Ontario?

A request to review asks the Landlord and Tenant Board itself, generally a different adjudicator, to reconsider its own earlier decision, typically on grounds like a serious procedural error, a party not receiving proper notice of the hearing, or new and relevant evidence that wasn't reasonably available before. This stays within the Board's own tribunal process under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and is generally faster and less formal than going to court, though it isn't available for simply disagreeing with how the original member weighed the evidence.

An appeal to the Divisional Court, by contrast, takes the matter outside the Board entirely and into the court system, but is limited strictly to questions of law, meaning arguing the Board misunderstood or misapplied the legal rules that govern it, not that it reached the wrong factual conclusion. Because these two options serve different purposes and have different grounds, many parties consider the internal review request first, given its narrower cost and more direct focus on the specific Board decision, before deciding whether a legal question genuinely justifies pursuing a Divisional Court appeal instead or afterward.