Going alone
$0
plus NCAT filing fee
All the work, none of the structure. High risk of missing the 3-month breach window.
For self-represented people, in every state
Turn your emails, photos and dates into a hearing-ready case, with every deadline counted down. One-off price, from $79.
Deadline tracking live for NSW, Victoria & Queensland. Verified filing fees, the right front door and official resources for every state and territory.
2 minutes, no sign-up, no card. Tells you the right form, the filing fee and your deadlines.
See how it works14-day money-back guarantee. If it does not fit your case, we refund the lot, as long as you have not yet downloaded your bundle or generated your application. Information, not legal advice.
What you can count on
Every deadline cites its section: RTA s44, HBA s18E, the 14-day bond window.
Your case is stored on Australian servers, under the Australian Privacy Principles.
14-day money-back guarantee, before you download your bundle or generate your application.
Free tools, no sign-up.
How it works
How it works
Inside the workspace
Inside the workspace
From the first email to getting paid after the hearing, in plain English.
Every email is kept exactly as sent, with DKIM, SPF and DMARC verdicts and a SHA-256 fingerprint.
The raw .eml is preserved with headers intact, so an original can be proven genuine if the other side disputes it.
Export every tracked deadline as an .ics file with a reminder before each one.
A step-by-step roadmap for your case type, including any Fair Trading or Building Commission step you must do first.
The orders-sought builder gives you wording the Tribunal accepts and guards against going over a statutory cap.
A defect-by-defect table with a standards lookup, exported as a print-ready A3 PDF.
What to expect, what to say and a single checklist, including the three hole-punched copies you will need.
Follow your notes under pressure, on your phone, in the room.
A winning order is not money yet, so we walk the recovery path step by step.
Register the order at the Local Court, run an examination, and issue a writ or garnishee if it comes to that. For building work, we point you to the Home Building Compensation Fund.
One workspace, one-off price, from $79.
Australia-wide
Every state and territory has its own civil and administrative tribunal — NSW’s NCAT, Victoria’s VCAT, Queensland’s QCAT, South Australia’s SACAT, WA’s SAT, Tasmania’s TASCAT, the ACT’s ACAT and the NT’s NTCAT. The pain is the same everywhere; the rules differ. We’ve mapped all eight: live deadline tracking for NSW, Victoria and Queensland, and the verified filing fees, the right front door and every official resource for the rest.
New South Wales
Residential tenancy & bond, consumer claims, home building, strata, and more.
NCAT deadlines, fees & processVictoria
Residential tenancies, owners corporation, domestic building, and consumer claims.
VCAT deadlines, fees & processQueensland
Minor civil & tenancy disputes, consumer claims, building, and body corporate.
QCAT deadlines, fees & processSouth Australia
Residential tenancies, housing, and administrative review.
SACAT deadlines, fees & processWestern Australia
Commercial & civil disputes, building, strata, guardianship, and vocational regulation.
SAT fees, forms & resourcesTasmania
Guardianship, anti-discrimination, planning, and (some) tenancy streams.
TASCAT fees, forms & resourcesAustralian Capital Territory
Residential tenancy, civil disputes, guardianship, and administrative review.
ACAT deadlines, fees & processNorthern Territory
Tenancy, guardianship, and administrative review (civil claims capped at $25k).
NTCAT deadlines, fees & processWhether your matter is at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT), the State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia (SAT), the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT), the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) or the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT), the winning habits are the same: a clear chronology, dated evidence, and never missing a deadline. Information, not legal advice.
What it costs
A solicitor retainer for an NCAT matter runs $2,000 to $5,000. TribunalReady is $79 to $299, once.
All the work, none of the structure. High risk of missing the 3-month breach window.
Thorough, but $2,000 to $5,000+ for a dispute that may be worth less.
Built for the hearing
Solicitor cost estimates from Contracts Specialist NCAT cost commentary; varies with case complexity. NCAT’s default is that each party bears their own costs (s60 CAT Act 2013), so winners rarely recover legal spend. Sometimes a solicitor is still the right call: high-value building defects, a Supreme Court appeal, or anything outside NCAT’s $500,000 home-building cap.
Three illustrative cases
Three illustrative NSW scenarios: a renter, a homeowner and a consumer. Each turned on the chronology, the bundle and the deadlines as much as the merits. That is the part you can actually control.
Sydney renter
They came after our bond for $1,100. We came back with a 40-page bundle and left with $6,500.
Illustrative, from public reports.
An agent claimed cleaning issues at exit, the kind of believable, minor list most people just give up on. This renter lodged her own bond refund, indexed every photo and email, and walked out with the order in her favour.
The agent claimed cleaning issues at exit. One Whirlpool renter described the playbook: a seemingly impossible list of believable, relatively minor issues, so most people just give up. This tenant did not. She lodged her own bond refund, indexed every entry-condition photo and email, and walked out with the order in her favour.
The fix you control: lodge your own bond refund first. The bond-first tactic puts the agent on the 14-day clock to apply to NCAT, not you. We track that window from day one.
Illustrative scenario, paraphrased from public reports. Yahoo Finance (2024) · Whirlpool Forums
Newcastle homeowner
We won every hearing. The builder’s bank account was empty.
Illustrative, from public reports.
A pool builder no-showed three directions hearings and NCAT awarded the full refund. At enforcement the company had no assets and the director had moved to a new ABN, so a money order was not money in the account.
Pool builder no-showed three directions hearings. NCAT awarded the full refund. At enforcement, the company had no assets and the director had moved to a new ABN. A money order is not money in the account.
The fix you control: the enforcement tracker starts the recovery path the day you win. Local Court registration, an examination, then a writ or garnishee.
Illustrative scenario, paraphrased from public reports. Whirlpool Forums
Wollongong consumer
The tradie took the deposit and went quiet. Now what?
Illustrative, from public reports.
Half a kitchen ripped out, $4,800 down, calls unreturned. A claim like this turns on the basics: finding the trader, proving you served them, and framing it as an Australian Consumer Law major failure.
Half the kitchen ripped out, $4,800 down, calls unreturned. A claim like this turns on the basics: finding the trader, proving you served them, and framing it as an Australian Consumer Law major failure.
The fix you control: the free triage runs the ABN lookup and the 3-month application window check before you spend a cent.
Illustrative scenario, paraphrased from public reports. Whirlpool Forums
Illustrative scenarios paraphrased from public reports, not customers of ours.
Pricing
One-off price per case, no subscription. Less than a single hour with a NSW solicitor, and there is no clock running.
The basics, before a hearing is even scheduled.
Includes a 14-day money-back guarantee, before you download your bundle or generate your application.
What most cases that reach a hearing need.
vs $2,000+ for a solicitor
Everything in Starter, plus
Includes a 14-day money-back guarantee, before you download your bundle or generate your application.
All the way through.
Everything in Hearing-Ready, plus
Includes a 14-day money-back guarantee, before you download your bundle or generate your application.
Not sure which plan? Check your case free first. It tells you what your matter needs before you pay.
One-off, incl. GST. Subscriptions are the wrong shape for a one-shot dispute. Starter and Hearing-Ready keep your workspace open for 90 days; Full-Case for 12 months.
TribunalReady provides legal information, not legal advice, and is not a law firm.
Need more? Plans for property managers, strata managers and building consultants: Contact us
Questions
Questions
NCAT, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, is the low-cost, no-lawyer-needed venue for everyday disputes. Filing costs from $62. You would take a matter to NCAT when:
The free triage confirms it in about two minutes.
No. We provide legal information to help you represent yourself at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. We are not lawyers and we do not give legal advice.
For advice on your specific circumstances, contact LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529 (Mon-Fri, 9-5), Legal Aid NSW, your local Community Legal Centre, or a solicitor.
Usually not. NCAT’s Consumer & Commercial Division defaults to no legal representation. You generally need the Tribunal’s leave to be represented, and NCAT’s own annual reports show around 85% of applicants self-represent.
For high-value home-building matters (typically above $30,000) paid advice often pays for itself. For a $3,000 bond dispute it almost never does. The triage tells you honestly which side of that line your matter sits on.
For most home-building disputes, yes. NCAT’s Home Building application asks you to confirm you contacted NSW Fair Trading first, and the Home Building Act (Part 3A) supports that triage step.
For tenancy, residential and consumer disputes you generally do not need to go through Fair Trading first; you can apply to NCAT directly. We flag the right path for your case in the triage.
Some NCAT deadlines are strict and missing them usually ends your case. The 14-day window to dispute a bond claim and the 28-day window to lodge an internal appeal are two examples. Extensions are not automatic; the Tribunal weighs length, reason, prospects, and prejudice.
We surface every statutory deadline for your matter and remind you before each one, so nothing quietly expires while you are heads-down on something else.
Each case gets its own inbound address. When you CC or forward an email to it, whether a repair request, a notice or a quote, we parse the message and add it to your case timeline.
We keep the raw .eml with full headers and DKIM/SPF/DMARC verdicts, so the evidentiary chain holds up if the other side disputes that something was sent or received.
10 answers in full.
Fee amounts current as at 1 July 2025. Verify at ncat.nsw.gov.au before lodging.
Every deadline tracked. Every email captured. A bundle the Member can actually read, and a plan for getting paid after. The structure a solicitor brings, run by the person who knows the case best: you. For a one-off price, not $2,000+.
2 minutes, no sign-up, no card. Tells you the right form, the filing fee and your deadlines.
One-off pricing, no subscription. 14-day money-back guarantee before you download your bundle or generate your application.