Customer Service Charter – Fact Sheet Fiction
· You will be treated with respect and courtesy; be provided with a timely and reliable service; and will be responded to in a timely manner.
· Only if your questions are simple and short and are accepted without reply. No receipt of calls made is provided and no record is made of the conversation. You will not be provided with the full name or position title of the person taking your call.
· If you ring, you will be answered with 2 minutes; if you write you will receive a response within 7 to 14 days.
· Yes very occasionally but delays will not be explained.
· You may bring a support person to the hearing.
· Yes and then the tribunal can deny them entry or the other party can object.
· If you make a complaint you will be given an answer within 28 days.
· Unless the complaint is about a member or a conciliator. This is merely a guideline and not a requirement.
1. Registry staff will provide you will information about CTTT’s policies and procedures.
· Yes but since these are completely optional they are of little use.
2. Registry staff will tell you how your case will be managed and timelines involved.
· Yes but what is told will have no relationship to what actually occurs.
3. Registry staff will tell you how to apply for an adjournment, urgent hearing or rehearing.
· Yes but then they will lose all your supporting evidence or file it in the bin.
4. Registry staff will provide contact details for low-cost advice on preparing your case.
· No they will not. You will need to find the factsheet yourself.
1. Conciliation is a voluntary process.
· Absolutely not; conciliation is compulsory and can occur several times. This is an overtly misleading statement.
2. Help is available from the conciliator or the tribunal member if you need it.
· No it is not; you are totally on your own if you are a tenant.
3. The member is to make sure that both parties’ consent is genuine. The member must ask if you freely entered the agreement.
· If this has ever occurred to you or anyone you know, please let us know. This definitely does not occur as a matter of rule.
4. You will need to have the permission of the other party to have your support person with you during conciliation.
· Yes it you are a knowledgeable participant but you will not be informed of this right by the conciliator. The conciliator is able to overrule this objection in practice.
1. Both parties must show their evidence; the decision will be based on the evidence presented and in accordance with the law.
· This is complete nonsense! Evidence is completely irrelevant. This statement is astonishingly untrue.
2. If you want to be represented you need to apply in writing to the CTTT.
· Yes but your application will be either ignored or denied. Landlords can automatically be represented by their estate agent without making an application.
3. Do not make personal comments, interrupt or tell lies.
· Yes, so if the other side never stops talking you will remain unheard as the conciliator will do nothing to ensure both sides have the opportunity to speak.
4. All CTTT hearings are open to the public.
· Security guards are present in most tribunals and those not on the list are not admitted into the hearing room unless they appear as a representative or a support person. Random members of the public are not permitted entry. This is untrue.
1. The Chairperson will only decide on a re-hearing if you have suffered a ‘substantial injustice’
· This term is not defined in any literature made available to the public. No definition will be provided over the phone or in person. How the investigator determines if a substantial injustice has occurred is not disclosed, nor is there any record of the process of the investigation to ensure it is fair and reasonable.
2. Re-hearing applications are decided ‘on the papers’
· No. All applications will be made on performance measurement targets and almost all will be refused as a matter of course.
· Yes along with all your evidence, but you will not be allowed to view their response or their evidence. This results in procedural unfairness.
1. The CTTT is continually improving their dispute resolution service.
· There is no evidence of this and actual efforts to improve services are made available to the public. Only intentions to improve are stated.
· This is complete nonsense. If you make a complaint about the tribunal member or a member of staff you will be victimised and never receive a fair hearing. Tape recordings of hearings will become unavailable and documentation will become lost.
3. A response letter will be sent to the complainant once the complaint has been processed.
· This may happen or it may not! It is a matter of luck.
4. You will have a response to your complaint within 28 days.
· Not if it refers to a member, a conciliator, procedures or due process.
5. Privacy and confidentiality are observed as far as possible.
· This is not true. Private and confidential information will be forwarded to the other party if it serves to assist the CTTT cover-up their own incompetence or corruption.
6. All complaints are recorded, categorised and monitored and feedback is provided.
· Internal procedures are unknown to the external observer but the provision of feedback can be assessed. Feedback will be either non-existent or misleading. It will always be unhelpful and reluctantly provided.
· Balance of Probabilities: Standard of proof applied by tribunal members based on available evidence
· CTTT Secret meaning: The probability of performance targets being reached.
· Burden of Proof: The obligation of a party to make out their case to the other party
· CTTT Secret meaning: Burden of preparing a case that will then be ignored.
· Consent Order: An agreement made between the parties which is later made an order
· CTTT Secret meaning: Consent achieved by threatening tenant with greater loses.
· Directions: Instructions given by tribunal member on the procedure to be followed and also to the exchange of documents before a hearing.
· CTTT Secret meaning: Informing tenants to do as they are told and not ask questions.
· Hearing: Where both parties present their evidence and submissions to the Member to enable a decision to be made.
· CTTT Secret meaning: Rare event that occurs after several sessions of mandatory conciliation and attempts at a forced ‘agreement’.
· Jurisdiction: The extent of the CTTT’s legal authority and power to make and determine certain orders.
· CTTT Secret meaning: A state that is deliberately confusing and is persistently resistant to requests for clarification. The tribunal, the CTTT, the rental bond board and the Fair Trading Department overtly imply that the tenancy tribunal has the authority to issue penalties as stated in the Act. This is not the case as the tribunal has not power to issue such penalties. It has taken weeks of both written and phone contact with all areas to have this matter conclusively confirmed. The tribunal cannot issue fines even though the public is led to believe that it does!!!!!!!!
· On the papers: Decision based on the written evidence presented.
· CTTT Secret meaning: Decision based on the need to meet performance targets.
· Order: Order made for the payment of money, or to instruct or halt particular action.
· CTTT Secret meaning: However not to impose penalties or fines as the tribunal cannot do this. This statement refers only to compensation orders that can be made by the tribunal which is completely separate.
· Proceedings: The progression of an application from lodgement to final orders.
· CTTT Secret meaning: A mysterious, unknown process that frequently results in the disappearance of vital information that may negatively impact performance targets being reached. Especially audio recordings of hearings.
· Written Reasons for decision: Statement explaining how the member came to their decision.
· CTTT Secret meaning: Vague comments that offer no insight into the decision process. Original orders will be written on any scrap of paper and even on forms with headings stating the opposite meaning. These original scribbles are not suitable to be used to ensure orders made by the tribunal in the local court. The applicant must pay for the orders to be prepared on an appropriate form in legible type or handwriting.
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