New Zealand's Disputes Tribunal: NZ$60,000 Cap, No Lawyers in the Room

How much can you claim in the Disputes Tribunal?

Up to $60,000. Section 10(3) of the Disputes Tribunal Act 1988 puts a claim inside the Tribunal's jurisdiction only if the total amount in respect of which an order of the Tribunal is sought does not exceed $60,000. The figure counts everything you ask for: if you want property returned, its value is included, and if you want the other side to put right defective work, the value of that work is included too.

The number is new. The Disputes Tribunal Amendment Act 2025 replaced $30,000 with $60,000 from 24 January 2026, which is why so many guides, including some that rank well, still quote the old limit. A page that tells you the Tribunal stops at $30,000 was written before this year.

If you are owed more than $60,000, section 14 lets you abandon the excess to bring the claim inside the limit. It is permanent: the Tribunal's order, or a settlement it approves, discharges the other side from the amount you gave up. Section 15 closes the obvious workaround, since a cause of action shall not be divided into 2 or more claims to get under the line. Nor can the parties agree their way above it; section 13, which once allowed that, was repealed in October 2019.

One transitional rule catches people who filed before the change. If you lodged a claim before 24 January 2026 and abandoned everything above $30,000 to fit the old limit, you cannot now amend that claim to put the abandoned amount back, and you cannot withdraw it and file again for the full sum. The higher ceiling helps new claims only.

What does it cost to file a claim?

The fee is set by rule 5 of the Disputes Tribunal Rules 1989 and was last changed on 1 July 2026. It includes GST, and the band is decided by the total you claim, not by what you eventually recover.

Three consequences follow. The fee is not returned if you lose or withdraw. If you win in whole or in part, the referee may order the respondent to pay your filing fee back, but section 43(5) makes that discretionary, and section 43(6) rules it out where the Tribunal approved a settlement you reached together. And beyond the fee, costs are almost never awarded: section 43(1) says costs shall not be awarded against a party, with exceptions only for a frivolous or vexatious claim, a claim lodged knowing it was outside the Tribunal's jurisdiction, or conduct meant to drag the proceedings out.

That rule cuts both ways. Losing an honest claim will not leave you paying the other side's costs, but winning will not recover what you spent preparing yours.

Can you use the Disputes Tribunal to collect a debt?

The application asks what you have already done to settle the dispute. That section is also the natural place to show the Registrar that a dispute exists at all: record the respondent's actual reason for refusing to pay, in their own words where you have them in an email or a text message.

What can the Disputes Tribunal hear?

Inside the $60,000 limit, section 10 gives the Tribunal claims founded on contract or quasi-contract, claims for a declaration that you do not owe money someone is demanding, and claims in tort for the loss of, damage to or recovery of property. Schedule 1 adds jurisdiction under several consumer statutes, among them the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Fencing Act 1978 and the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003.

Two provisions make the list wider than it looks. Section 16 makes a contract clause that excludes or limits the Tribunal's jurisdiction of no effect, so an agreement that disputes must go to arbitration does not keep you out, save for a narrow exception tied to the Arbitration Act 1996. And section 18(7) lets the referee disregard a term in the contract that excludes or limits conditions, warranties or remedies, which is the fine print that says the trader is never liable.

The Tribunal can also rewrite a bad bargain. Section 19(1)(e) and (f) let it vary or set aside an agreement it finds harsh or unconscionable, or one induced by fraud, misrepresentation or mistake.

How do you file a claim?

Watch the clock. The Tribunal's guidance is that you usually need to claim within six years of the event that caused the dispute, and to talk to a lawyer if you are outside that. The Act leaves the limit itself to the Limitation Act 2010 (section 10(5)), which works as a defence the respondent can raise.

If a claim has been made against you and you think the applicant owes you, file a counterclaim the same way, quoting the CIV number from your notice of hearing, and do it early so both claims are heard together.

What happens at a Disputes Tribunal hearing?

It does not look like a court. The hearing is usually held in a small room set out like a meeting room, with chairs around a table. It is held in private (section 39), closed to the public and the media. Evidence usually is not given on oath, and you do not need to dress formally.

A referee runs it. Referees are not judges, though they are usually legally qualified and their decisions bind; the Tribunal had 66 of them at the end of 2024. The role is inquisitorial. The referee can explain the parties' legal rights, ask each side questions directly and, under section 40, seek evidence on their own initiative and take into account material a court would not admit.

• The referee introduces everyone and explains how the hearing will run.
• The applicant speaks first, then the respondent, and the points in disagreement are discussed.
• Witnesses come in to give evidence and can be questioned by both parties and by the referee.
• The referee tries to help you settle. Section 18 requires the referee to consider that in every claim, and an agreement the referee approves is binding and enforceable.
• If you cannot agree, the referee decides according to the substantial merits and justice of the case, having regard to the law but not bound by strict legal rights, forms or technicalities (section 18(6)). The decision may be given on the day or sent later.

The hearing can be held by telephone or video if the referee thinks it appropriate (section 42A), and a party who lives far from the court can ask to take part by phone from a nearer one. If you find English difficult, the Tribunal provides an independent interpreter free of charge.

Filing alone often ends it. Of the 14,020 claims the Tribunal disposed of in 2024, 19% were resolved before any hearing and roughly the same share settled at one: 38% in all, according to its annual report.

Can you bring a lawyer to the Disputes Tribunal?

No, and the rule is stricter than in most small claims systems. Section 38(2) bars any representative unless the Tribunal approves one as proper in the circumstances. Section 38(7) then forbids the Tribunal to approve, as a representative or even as an approved helper, anyone who is, or has been, enrolled as a barrister and solicitor, or who in its opinion is regularly engaged in advocacy before other tribunals. A retired lawyer is caught as well.

Representation is allowed in narrow cases, and always with the Tribunal's approval. A company or other body may send an officer, employee or member, or someone holding at least a 50% interest in it; the Crown may send one of its own officers; and a minor, or anyone who for sufficient cause cannot appear or cannot present their case adequately, may have a representative (section 38(3)). The ban does not stop a lawyer who is personally a party, who is jointly liable or entitled with the party, or who is the majority shareholder of the company being represented.

What you can do is take legal advice before the hearing and bring it with you, and ask to bring a support person, who under section 38(6) is not entitled to be heard. Legal aid and free community legal help may be available for the advice stage.

Can you appeal a Disputes Tribunal decision?

Section 23 makes every order final and binding, subject to one statutory exception. There are two ways back, and they are not interchangeable.

Neither is a second go at the facts. A rehearing is for something that stopped a proper decision being made: the notice of hearing never reached you, you or a witness could not attend for a valid reason, or the referee got the amount wrong. The Tribunal says you cannot ask for one just because you disagree with the decision, and it will usually order only one (section 49(1A)). An appeal judge looks only at whether the hearing was run unfairly, working from the referee's report on how it was conducted; if the appeal succeeds, the judge can quash the order and send the claim back for a rehearing, move it to the District Court, or vary the order (section 53).

One failure counts as unfair automatically. Under section 50(2), a referee who fails to have regard to a provision of an enactment that was brought to their attention at the hearing, where that makes the result unfair to you, is deemed to have run the hearing unfairly. If a statute helps you, name it at the hearing, not afterwards.

You won. How do you get paid?

An order to pay money or return property is taken to be an order of the District Court (section 45(1)) and is enforced like one. But nobody enforces it for you. The Tribunal's guidance is explicit that it will not check the decision is followed and will not trace the other party.

• Wait for the deadline. You cannot enforce an order before the date set in it.
• Keep the respondent's details: home and work addresses, phone numbers, email, and any vehicles they own. District Court enforcement runs on them.
• Apply to the District Court to enforce the order as a civil debt. There are fees, and a respondent who has not paid may end up owing those fees, interest and other costs on top of the debt.
• For a work order, an order to repair or redo something, the Tribunal also makes an alternative money order at the same time (section 19(3)). If the work is not done, you can ask the Tribunal, free of charge, to enforce it or to let you collect the money instead. After 12 months a work order cannot be enforced without the Tribunal's leave (section 46(3)).
• Agree an attachment order at the hearing if you can. Where both parties are present and the payer consents, the referee can record that payment will come directly out of wages (section 19(1A)).

How to prepare when nobody can argue for you

The Tribunal adds that although the referee leads you through the hearing, you are more likely to get the result you want if you prepare well. In practice that means rehearsing the questions, not just the statement. A referee who questions both sides directly will find the gap in an account that has never been said out loud, with the respondent sitting across the table.