CTTT to become NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) as of 2014

On 1 January 2014, the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal is to become the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, replacing the CTTT and twenty other resolution tribunals and boards.

The Tenant's Union has been involved through the State Government's NCAT Reference Group, where they note that their efforts have been based around ensuring that the new tribunal provides tenants with the same level of "access to justice" as the CTTT did.

New South Wales Attorney General, Greg Smith, said that this was to simplify the "complex and bewildering" CTTT system and to increase its accessibility.

“The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) will be a one-stop shop for almost all state tribunals, ranging from relatively small bodies such as the Chinese Medicine Tribunal through to the much larger Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal,” said Smith.

It will be different to Tribunals operating in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT as it will be using specialist experts and separating the tribunal out into specialities.

An internal appeals panel will enable quick and accessible reviews of the majority of tribunal decisions.

“Currently there are limited avenues of appeal against the decisions of some tribunals, but all divisions of NCAT will be accountable for their determinations,” Smith said.