VCAT’s rental dispute backlog has today reached completion.

28 November 2024

This means that all users with a pending case now have a hearing date scheduled or their case has been heard.

The median wait time for residential tenancy disputes is now only six weeks, having peaked at 42 weeks in July 2023.

VCAT president Justice Ted Woodward said the milestone is a significant achievement for the Tribunal. “The backlog of residential tenancy bond and compensation cases peaked at 24,000 cases shortly before VCAT’s Backlog Recovery Program began in October 2023. To eliminate that backlog in a little over 12 months has been an extraordinary achievement,” Justice Woodward said.

The Backlog Recovery Program (BRP) was initially established on 1 December 2021. A refresh of the program was undertaken and implemented on 1 October 2023. In December 2023 and January 2024, VCAT appointed new members, many of whom began working in the Residential Tenancies List.

Additional funding had also allowed the BRP to greatly increase the registry workforce, allowing staff to more comprehensively prepare parties for hearings and maximise the efficiency of hearing time. The success of the BRP has strongly influenced a number of other reforms to VCAT’s work programs.

“The learnings and principles from BRP have heavily informed the operating model improvement work currently underway at VCAT, including the newly formed Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria at VCAT,” Justice Woodward said. “This is the result of dedication and hard work by our people over an extended period of time.”

“VCAT understands the impact that long wait times have on our users and on the Victorian community. Our efforts in this program will endure and shape VCAT’s operations in the future to ensure we continue to clear cases more efficiently.”

Work has already commenced to apply what the BRP taught us to resolving small civil claims, domestic building disputes and in guardianship matters (among others).