Common Claim Types in Small Claims Court

If you're trying to figure out whether your situation is something Small Claims Court can actually help with, there's a good chance it looks like one of three things: a contractor who didn't finish the job or didn't do it properly, money someone owes you — for work, for goods, or for a personal loan — that hasn't been repaid, or a business that won't give you a refund you believe you're owed. This hub exists because those three scenarios come up constantly, and each one deserves more than a quick summary.

What this hub covers

Each of the three guides linked below is a full, standalone treatment of its topic — not a short explainer, but a genuinely deep look at how these disputes actually play out in practice. They walk through realistic scenarios (a kitchen renovation that stalled halfway through, a personal loan to a friend that was never mentioned again, a defective appliance a store refuses to take back), the evidence that tends to matter most, the mistakes people commonly make, and the practical steps to take before and after filing a claim.

This hub is written for anyone trying to work out, in plain language, whether their specific situation is worth pursuing and what pursuing it would actually involve — whether you're the person owed money or work, or the person on the other side of a dispute like this.

Why these three scenarios

Contractor disputes, unpaid invoices and loans, and refund disputes share a few things in common that make them worth grouping together. Each one usually starts as an ordinary, good-faith transaction — hiring someone to do work, lending money to someone you trust, buying something you expected to work — before something goes wrong. Each one also tends to come down to a fairly narrow factual question once it reaches court: what was actually agreed, what was actually delivered, and what evidence exists to show the gap between the two. Understanding that shared structure is part of what makes each individual guide more useful.

The in-depth guides

• Suing a Contractor: Deficient Work, No-Shows, and What Actually Wins

  Deficient work, incomplete jobs, and no-show contractors — what you need to prove and how to build the evidence file that actually wins.

• Unpaid Invoices and Unpaid Loans in Ontario Small Claims Court

  A full comparison of what it takes to prove an unpaid invoice versus an unpaid personal loan, including cases with no written agreement at all.

• Can You Sue for a Refund in Ontario Small Claims Court?

  When a "no refunds" sign is and isn't the final word, and how to build a refund claim that holds up.

How this fits with the rest of the site

This hub is not meant to replace the site's broader dispute-type library — it's meant to go deeper on the three scenarios that come up most often. The Types of Disputes section covers 18 distinct categories of Small Claims Court cases, from landlord and tenant issues to vehicle repairs, neighbour disputes, and pet-related claims. If your situation isn't a contractor dispute, an unpaid invoice or loan, or a refund, that library is the better place to start. Each guide on this hub also links out to its shorter companion piece and to the relevant page in that broader library, so you can move between the two levels of detail as needed.

Once a claim moves past the "should I sue" stage, the next questions are usually about the process itself — motions, settlement conferences, judgment, and collecting on a judgment that isn't paid voluntarily. That side of things is covered in a companion hub, collecting and enforcing a judgment.

Related topics

• Insights — the full library of plain-language explainer articles this hub belongs to.
• Types of Disputes — the complete library of 18 dispute-type guides, for situations beyond the three covered here in depth.
• Collecting and Enforcing a Judgment — what happens after a claim type on this hub actually reaches a decision.

Frequently asked questions