When a renovation goes wrong in Ontario: what you can actually do

Small Claims Court now covers $50,000

This changed recently and most renovation advice online has not caught up: Ontario's Small Claims Court monetary limit rose from $35,000 to $50,000, effective October 1, 2025. That covers the overwhelming majority of residential renovation disputes, and you can run a Small Claims matter without a lawyer.

The filing fees for a homeowner (an "infrequent claimant", meaning fewer than ten claims a year) are:

• $108 to file a claim
• $94 for default judgment
• $308 to set a trial date

Fee waivers are available if you cannot afford them. Frequent claimants pay more, which is a quiet advantage for the homeowner over a company that litigates routinely.

"Most homeowners never get near a courtroom, because the paperwork does the arguing. A written contract, dated photos, a change-order log and a demand letter with a cure date settle the overwhelming majority of disputes before anyone files anything. The people who end up stuck are the ones who have nothing in writing to point at."

Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.

The ministry complaint route

You can file a consumer complaint with Ontario's ministry responsible for consumer protection. Two things to understand before you do: you must contact the business first, and the ministry mediates rather than awarding damages. It will contact you within 15 business days. It is a genuine pressure point and it creates a record, but it is not a substitute for the court route if you are owed money.

Your leverage, in order

1. Stop paying for work not completed. Payments should already be staged against inspected milestones, per how deposits and draws should be structured.
2. Hold the 10 percent. The statutory holdback exists for exactly this moment; see the liens and holdback guide.
3. Written demand with a cure date, referencing your contract's start and completion dates.
4. Consumer protection cancellation rights, which cover in-home agreements within the cooling-off window and extend far longer where a contractor made false or misleading representations. The framework is in your protections under Ontario law.
5. Small Claims Court up to $50,000.

The financing trap worth knowing about

Ontario banned Notices of Security Interest (NOSIs) on consumer goods effective June 6, 2024 under the Homeowner Protection Act, 2024, and existing ones on financed or rented consumer goods such as HVAC equipment, water heaters and furnaces are deemed expired. That was a genuine win against a predatory practice.

But understand precisely what it did and did not do: the ban does not erase the debt. Financiers retain their security interests, borrowers remain bound to the underlying contracts, and lenders can still pursue collection through legal proceedings or PPSA seizure. Removing a NOSI from title does not cancel what you signed. This is why contractor-arranged financing deserves the same scrutiny as the contract itself, and why running a PPSA search before you sign is worth eight dollars.

Prevention is the whole strategy

Every remedy above is a worse outcome than not needing one. The contract clauses that prevent disputes are listed in the clause-by-clause breakdown, and the vetting that keeps you away from the contractors who generate them is in the hiring hub.