After you apply – Building and construction disputes

You can contact the other party (or they can contact you) at any time to try to come to an agreement before the hearing. If you do reach an agreement, you and the other parties must let us know in writing, and copy in the other party, as soon as possible. 

If you make an offer to settle and you want to keep it confidential, make it in writing to the other party and use the words ‘without prejudice’ in your offer. 

This means that if your offer is not accepted by the other party, it cannot be discussed at a hearing. 

You can try and resolve the dispute without VCAT right up until the day of the hearing, and for residential tenancy disputes, in the hearing.

After you settle, if you’re the applicant you can end your case by asking us:

• to withdraw your application
• to strike out your case with the right to apply for reinstatement (except in a review of a planning decision) 
• for consent orders. 

Learn more about how you can settle a dispute outside VCAT

If you are the applicant, you can ask for permission to withdraw your VCAT application at any time before the hearing, for example, if you change your mind. You must let us and the other parties know in writing as soon as possible if you want to apply to withdraw. 

For some case types if you are the applicant you may have to pay costs to the respondent if you withdraw your claim. 

If you do withdraw your application, in most cases it can’t be reinstated. (This doesn’t apply in cases about guardians, administratrators, and powers of attorney for example.) You may be able to start a new application about the same dispute later. There will be new fees to pay and we may not accept your application.

Read more about how to withdraw your application

Cases about guardians, administrators, supportive guardians and supportive administrators

If you want to withdraw your application in a case about guardians, administrators, supportive guardians and supportive administrators:

• Write to us, explaining why orders are no longer needed.
• We consider whether there is any serious risk to the person you made the application about. This is because the law requires us to protect a person who may have a decision-making disability.

Even if an application has been withdrawn, the applicant or anyone else is able to make another application about the same circumstances at any later time.
 

If you are applying to VCAT, you must share a copy of your application and all other supporting documents that are part of your case (like evidence or correspondence with us) with the person or business you are making your claim against (the ‘respondent’ or ‘respondents’).

We’ll tell you when to do this. If you disadvantage someone by not giving them a copy of the documents you plan to use in the case, VCAT may make an order or award costs against you.

Whether you made the application or are defending a claim, if you’re writing to VCAT about your case, you must always send a copy to the other person or business (‘party’).

You can send copies of your application and other correspondence to parties by:

• email – if you’ve emailed them before applying to VCAT, or if they’ve given us their email address
• by post
• in person

Make sure you include your VCAT reference number with the documents.

Read more about how to send documents

Proof you sent documents

We need to see proof that you’ve shared your documents for some types of cases:

Goods and services cases

For goods and services cases, fill in the Declaration of Service form

Make sure you:

• complete all parts of the form
• sign it before an authorised witness
• send it to us at least one week before your hearing.

Planning cases

For planning and environment cases, fill in the Statement of Service form attached to your order. You need to send this to us by the date we give you in the order we sent you.

If we don’t receive the form by the date we give you, your application can’t progress and may be ‘struck out’ or cancelled. If it’s struck out, you can apply for it to be reinstated. 

See also: What’s my VCAT reference number?

A change to the date of a directions hearing, mediation, compulsory conference or hearing is called an ‘adjournment’. 
 
If you can’t come to VCAT on the date we give you, you can ask for a change of date (adjournment). 

First, ask the other parties in the case to agree using the Request for consent to an adjournment form. 

Then, send us an adjournment application form no later than: 

• two business days before a directions hearing, mediation or compulsory conference
• two business days before a hearing for a residential tenancy case
• five business days before a hearing for all other cases.

You must: 

• give us good reasons for the change, like a sudden illness, accident or bereavement in the family
• give us evidence in writing to support your reasons (for example, a medical certificate)
• ask for the change in writing no later than two business days before the directions hearing, mediation or compulsory conference or five days before a final hearing. 

We may not agree to change the date, even if every person involved in the case agrees. Ask for an adjournment as soon as possible.

A change of date isn’t always possible, and we can’t change the date simply to speed things up. The hearing will go ahead as scheduled if we don’t confirm a new date and time with you.
 
Download the Adjournment Application Form
 

See also: What happens if I can't come to VCAT?

When you come to a VCAT hearing and give evidence at VCAT you need to support what you say with originals of documents.

You must bring these documents with you on the day – you can’t give us new evidence after we make a decision.

Bring copies of your documents for the member (the person who hears and decides cases) and the other people at the hearing. Both sides have a right to a fair hearing so you must show all your evidence to the other people involved in the case. Depending on the type of case, the documents you need could be:

• affidavits, statutory declarations and witness statements 
• condition reports, contracts, leases, bond receipts and rental records 
• quotes, invoices and receipts 
• expert reports
• business diaries and financial records 
• letters and notes of conversations or meetings 
• photographs and videos 
• plans and drawings 
• timesheets and job records 
• reports from doctors 
• reports from social workers and case managers. 

If the dispute is about a product, bring it if it’s a manageable size. You can’t print documents at VCAT but you can make photocopies for a small fee. 

We strongly recommend you bring a mask if you need to come to one of our venues. If you're attending a hearing, you may be instructed to wear a mask during part or all of the hearing.

Find out more about preparing for your hearing

See also: Can I bring my own tech devices to the hearing?

When you present your case at VCAT you can include evidence from experts to support your side of the story. 

An expert report is a written report from an expert that a party uses as evidence in a VCAT case.

The expert must provide an impartial opinion based on their area of expertise. They must make an oath that their report is written to the best of their knowledge and expertise.

Any party in a VCAT case  can organise and submit an expert report as evidence. For example:

• a person involved in a dispute about house renovations may ask a building consultant to provide an expert report
• in a planning case, a party (including objectors) may ask for a report from an aborist or heritage architect

The expert is generally expected to come to the hearing to explain key elements of the report. It allows the member and the parties to ask questions about the report. We tell you if we don’t expect the expert to attend, or you can ask us whether they need to come to VCAT.

Find out how to prepare an expert report

See also: How do I send documents to other people in the case?