Waiting times to have a dispute heard at the Victorian legal tribunal – which is tasked with being “timely and efficient” – have stretched to months and, in the worst cases, years.
Renters were hit particularly hard by delays at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2022, with disputes between landlords and tenants taking months to be heard rather than a few weeks, as was once the case.
A tribunal spokeswoman said the increase in time taken to hear cases was largely driven by more people using the tribunal due to improved accessibility through online hearings. More people taking part via online hearings also extended the length of cases, she said. “We recognise the financial impact and the stress of waiting to have these cases heard,” the tribunal spokeswoman said.
Waits for hearings over building disputes were even longer, with a median delay of more than eight months. One woman with a long-running building dispute has had her case – originally scheduled to begin in August this year – delayed until October 2024.with a building surveyor and building authorities over who was responsible for problems with the home she and her husband built more than a decade ago.
Singleton said that, along with causing her “relentless stress and worry”, the delays were unacceptable because they meant building companies could deliberately stall proceedings “to avoid being held accountable”. The part of the tribunal dealing with property disputes, small civil claims and owners’ corporation issues in apartments had median wait times for cases ranging from 15 weeks in the best case to 38 weeks in the worst.
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