The High Court of Australia has ruled that the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) does not have jurisdiction where one or more of the parties to the dispute are interstate.
Leanne Pilkington, president of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW), said the NSW Attorney General made the decision to wait for the High Court regarding the issue.
“Today’s result shows his failure to act was completely inappropriate, and with the verdict delivered, will continue to cause numerous problems with parties unable to have their disputes resolved by NCAT in the future,” Pilkington said.
“REINSW strongly lobbied the government to find a resolution and suggested replicating legislation in other states where the problems created by the NSW legislation does not exist. Amending the NCAT legislation with a similar section to that of Queensland’s would have quickly and effectively solved the problem,” Pilkington said.
"This should have been done as soon as it was identified back in February 2017 when the Court of Appeal in the Burns v Corbett case declared NCAT—which handles disputes between tenants and landlords—had no jurisdiction if one or more of the parties lives in another state. This failure by the NSW Government to act exposes both tenants and landlords to additional issues than the original dispute.”
Burns v Corbett; Gaynor v Burns also has ramifications for interstate landlords looking to settle disputes with NSW tenants.
Tim McKibbin, CEO of REINSW, said both landlords and tenants were left highly vulnerable if they could not resolve the issues themselves.
“People can’t disregard their contractual obligations but ... if parties are in dispute, if either party wants to bring the proceedings, then that becomes very difficult when the judicial authority that has the exclusive jurisdiction to hear the matter is unable to do so,” he told ABC News.
“[There are] 800,000 rental properties in NSW and there would be a significant number of these properties that would be outside those jurisdictions.”
