New South Wales’ new Tribunal, NCAT, has arrived

With 2014 now in full swing, the new tribunal in New South Wales is underway – called ‘NCAT’ or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

It has some key differences to its CTTT counterpart, including a difference process for a rehearing. Instead of applying for a rehearing, you head to the Tribunal’s Appeal Panel, notes The Brown Couch – a tenant’s advocacy blog.

Appeals based on questions of law must be heard, while appeals on other grounds will require some convincing of the tribunal – such as a miscarriage of justice or new evidence that wasn’t previously available.

There is now an eight-fold increase fee for appeals (the new rehearings), which sits at $317, despite the Tenants Union asking for the fee to stay at $38 as it was previously. A $78 fee for if you weren’t at Tribunal also applies if you want the decision to be altered or removed.

There is now also a time limit for making an application to NCAT that hasn’t got a specified time limit already – that is, 28 days from when you become entitled to make an application. This would include things such as applying for occupants to be recognized as tenants.

The Brown Couch notes that they “think imposing a 28-day time limit on these applications could lead to some unreasonable or harsh results, so will be recommending to NSW Fair Trading to specify more reasonable time limits. Until then, make sure you when you make one of these applications that you ask the Tribunal for an extension of time if you're outside the 28 days.”