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Real Estate Agents Act 2008

Complaints and discipline - Complaints Assessment Committees

87: Negotiation, conciliation, and mediation

You could also call this:

"Talking it out: resolving complaints by discussion"

Illustration for Real Estate Agents Act 2008

You can make a complaint to a Complaints Assessment Committee. The Committee can tell you and the other person to try to resolve the issue by talking it out. You both have to report back to the Committee. The Committee will only tell you to do this if it thinks it will help resolve the complaint. It must consider whether this will work and whether it is in the public interest. If you and the other person can agree on a solution, the Committee can write it down. It can also make this solution part of its final decision, if you both agree. What you say during these talks is private and cannot be used as evidence in court. But if there is other evidence that exists anyway, it can still be used. You can see how this rule is similar to another rule, s 143, for more information.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1152072.

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"What you can tell the Complaints Assessment Committee to help them make a decision"

Part 4Complaints and discipline
Complaints Assessment Committees

87Negotiation, conciliation, and mediation

  1. A Committee may give, in relation to any complaint received by it, a direction that, within a time or before a date fixed by the Committee, the parties both—

  2. explore the possibility of resolving, by negotiation, conciliation, or mediation,—
    1. the complaint; or
      1. any issues relating to the complaint as the Committee specifies; and
      2. report to the Committee.

        1. The Committee must not give a direction under subsection (1) if it considers that such a direction—

        2. would not contribute constructively to resolving the complaint; or
          1. would not, in all the circumstances, be in the public interest; or
            1. would undermine the urgent nature of the complaint.

              1. If the parties reach an agreed settlement in relation to the complaint or any issue involved in the complaint, the Committee—

              2. may record the terms of the settlement; and
                1. may, by consent of the parties, declare all or some of the terms of the settlement to be all or part of a final determination of the complaint by the Committee.

                  1. No evidence is admissible in any court or before any person acting judicially or before the Committee or before the Disciplinary Tribunal of any information, statement, or admission disclosed or made to any person in the course of any negotiation, conciliation, or mediation conducted, in accordance with a direction given under subsection (1), for the purpose of resolving a complaint or any issue involved in a complaint.

                  2. Nothing in this section prevents the discovery or affects the admissibility of any evidence (being evidence which is otherwise discoverable or admissible and which existed independently of any negotiation, conciliation, or mediation conducted under a direction given under subsection (1) for the purpose of resolving a complaint or any issue involved in a complaint) merely because the evidence was presented in the course of the negotiation, conciliation, or mediation.

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