By Tim McKibbin- REINSW CEO
A jurisdictional issue uncovered earlier this year found that NCAT, which handles disputes between tenants and landlords, has no jurisdiction if one of the parties lives in another state, which is often the case.
As a result the State Parliament passed amendments, which began on 1 December 2017, to confer jurisdiction to the Local and District Courts to hear matters in these situations.
This in my view is a very unsatisfactory because it is only addressing the symptoms of the problem and not the root cause. The real problem is the jurisdictional impediment of NCAT to hear matters between residents of different states. This needs to be urgently addressed.