In this video, Conrad Vass of Space Property Agency explains the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) as the primary dispute resolution forum for residential tenancy matters. He outlines the NCAT process—from filing an application, receiving notices, and possible mediation, to formal hearings—highlighting the shift from an informal tribunal to a more court‑like setting that demands paginated, indexed evidence. Vass then provides a detailed preparation checklist for landlords or their agents, covering essential documents such as authority letters, tenancy agreements, condition reports, invoices, breach notices, payment ledgers, and calculation sheets. He stresses the importance of organized hearing notes, summary sheets, and communication logs, noting that evidence quality often determines outcomes. The video also discusses the typical time and cost involved in preparing a case (approximately 4 + hours for a simple cleaning dispute) and offers practical tips like using Fair Trading’s editable hearing‑note template. Finally, Vass announces a forthcoming series on NCAT cases and invites viewers to share their own experiences.
Chapters
Hi, it's Conrad from Space Property Agency. NCAT— what is it? Who does it affect? If you're renting or a landlord, you more than likely are very familiar with NCAT. NCAT is the what we used to call the tribunal. It's basically a court these days for consumer, but more importantly, tenancy matters. Tenancy matters, residential and retail, but we'll focus on the residential today. NCAT tends to try and be the adjudicator, um, They are the most common go-to dispute mechanism or tribunal for landlords and tenants in dispute, or if you're a consumer, you know, in consumer situations. But let's just talk residential. As a landlord and agent, there are certain mandatory things you need to know and you need to be prepared for when you go to NCAT. The process typically would involve application, so someone's got to apply. It could be a rental bond dispute, it could be termination of tenancy— they're probably the most common ones— it could be orders for somebody to do something or not to do something. So this is an example of A tenant who recently vacated decided that cleaning was optional and paying for the cleaning was optional. So we often have discussions with clients about the time involved to prepare, attend. NCAT in its inception used to be an informal, straightforward forum and process. These days it's a watered-down version of a magistrate's court, to be honest. You know, evidence needs to be paginated, indexed. Not lawyers, but they want to make us act like lawyers. But anyway, so what do you need to know when you go to NCAT? NCAT, typically someone will apply. Both parties will receive a notice of application. So the person applying needs to state the reasons what they're applying for and the reasons why. There are several NCAT locations through New South Wales. We being in the Surry Hills area, the City of Sydney, we go up the road to the Sydney NCAT premise. Typically when you get there, you'll be called into a room. They'll do a roll call, if you will. If one party is present, then they will wait and then be heard later on in the absence of the second party, whether that be the applicant or the respondent. In the cases where both parties are present, they will then be sent off for mediation. NCAT does have conciliators roaming around trying to bring parties together. So if 2 parties agree, then, you know, there's no need for a hearing. But in the cases where these things don't happen, then you'll be sit down for a hearing, and if you can't be heard, you'll be called back so both parties can present their evidence and argument. And if need be, you can go to what's called a formal hearing, which is basically Reams and reams and reams of evidence and legal arguments based on the Residential Tenancies Act. When we typically sign up a new client, a management client, in our fees and charges, there is an if and when. So if you have to go to the tribunal, then these are the charges. And we often get pushback on that. So what I wanted to share with you, this is a very simple application in the sense that it's not complicated. We don't need experts' reports. We will do a series on NCAT cases to talk about, you know, the goings-on and the idiosyncrasies. But for this case, I just wanted to go through what you need to know if you're going to NCAT. Now I'm going to come at it from the point of view of a— oops— a landlord or a landlord's agent and what you need to have. Now, as I said, this is a cleaning quote. This is predominantly a cleaning end of tenancy matter, but as you can see, it's close to 100 pages. So for those that just think it's a throwaway, it takes preparation. Preparation is key because when you're in the hearing, the members aren't waiting. They really, in my opinion, give unfair latitude to tenants as what they would to landlords or owners. In some cases, I've had members almost prosecute the cases on behalf of a tenant who didn't meet the burden of proof. But sorry, for another day. So What we do as an office is we will typically prepare a summary sheet, and that summary sheet is like a cheat sheet. It's your quick point of reference because if you're in the hearing and things are going, or you may not be having a good day and you just need to center yourself, we'll just simply have some quick reference notes. Talk about why we're there, what we're relying on, you know, if there is a reference to the Act or a or a case that we are relying on that might be in a gray area. But in this case, this is cleaning, it's not so hard. So you'll need to have hearing notes. Now the hearing notes are basically a summary for the member. They'll take and clip them to their file. They'll just say, who are the parties, high level, you know, what are the legal details, what documents are here, what aren't, who was engaged when, that sort of stuff. We'll typically also include a copy of said application. So in this case, this is the tenant's application because people can forget why they're actually there. So it's actually a good practical measure. We have reports generated by our system which will give us summaries on lease commencements, terminations, summary of what we're claiming, breakdown of costs. Communications history, which is very important because cases are won and lost on communications. Did you say? What did you say? Why didn't you say it? Did you serve? Didn't you serve? Was it legal? Was it valid? So, as I said, things can be won and lost. Other things that are very important is your payment ledger. Nine times out of a hundred, nine times out of ten. A case will be around money, and often, even if it's not, it still comes back to money. So your payment ledger, gotta have. So we find it really important to if we have to submit evidence, we will have big reams and we'll have every page numbered and we'll have indexes. Thankfully, this one. that isn't that sorted. So manage our copy of our signed authority, thus you can be there on someone else's behalf, and that has to be executed correctly. Copy of the tenancy agreement, in this case because we're discussing how the property was left as opposed to how it was handed over. We have a conditions report, both ingoing, outgoing, and inventory if applicable. Copies— now this is important if it's matters such as this— invoices, quotes. Again, your case can live and die by how prepared you are and to what extent you acted to mitigate. And in this case here, this tenant was issued several breach notices, notices of termination. Should we need to rely on that, And again, in this case, we would do that because we're looking to show a pattern of the tenancy. So when they say, I'm innocent, it wasn't me, well, you know, we can say, well, madam, mister or madam, remember, during the course of this person's tenancy, we arrived to this point because this is how they behaved during that point, and that cannot be dismissed. We have a chronological— very important, particularly when you're trying to flick through it— log of emails, our rental bond history and claim. For the purposes of this particular case, should it arise, we also have attached a copy of the tenant's application, and we also have a summary of witnesses we may need to call should this thing kick on. So simple application, but you can see that to simply walk in this thinking, I'm right, they're wrong, here are my quotes, just rubber stamp it, you're running a fool's errand. It— you need to be educated, prepared, and organized. And if you aren't all those things, you are running a high risk of your matter being dismissed, declined, all the things you don't want it to. So in this particular matter, it's probably taken me the better part of an hour to put this together. By the time we travel to— even though we're not too far away— and go through it, that's probably going to be another 3 hours. And if we're lucky, common sense may prevail and we may get away with that. And so that's cost our clients At 4 hours at a minimum. Now, if this matter kicks on, then it's how long's a piece of string. So in summary, when going to the tribunal, if you are a landlord or you're representing a landlord, let me just reiterate the absolute minimum things you need to have and be prepared. You need to have your hearing notes prepared. You can get them from Fair Trading's website. It's basically an editable PDF. You need to have a copy of your authority if you're representing someone, and it needs to be signed and dated. You need a copy of the tenancy agreement. Again, advisable that it's signed by all parties. Copy of the rental bond. If it's a matter relating to any conditional repairs, conditions reports, or any type of reports, you need to have a copy of your residential tenancy agreement. If you've had any rent increases during the tenancy, they also must be part of the lease because technically they are. You also need copies of any breach notices, notices of termination. copies of correspondence and payment ledgers. Very important that you are able to demonstrate to a third party who doesn't know anyone what is being paid and when, and if money's owed, why. Because that's, that's evidence. If it's not documented, it's not evidence. It becomes really hard. And have your calculations ready. How did you arrive to the figure you did? Hope it helps. Again, this is a day in the life of a property manager. This is what we do unfortunately too often. But we are starting a series on cases for NCAT. So if you are interested, or you may have a horror story or success story in NCAT, love to hear them. We're always learning. Every member has their own interpretation of the Act. We'll be bringing you some more. We'd love your feedback. DM us, uh, if you want to, uh, exchange some war stories. It's Conrad Vass from Space Property Agency.
