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Residential Tenancies Act 1986

The Tenancy Tribunal - Jurisdiction

83: Transfer of proceedings to District Court

You could also call this:

“The Tribunal can move a case to the District Court if it's not allowed to handle it or if it thinks the District Court would be better at dealing with it.”

If the Tribunal can’t handle a case, they can send it to the District Court instead of just dismissing it. This happens when the Tribunal doesn’t have the power to make a decision about the case.

The Tribunal can also choose to send a case to the District Court if they think it would be better dealt with there. However, they can’t do this if there’s an agreement that says the case must be settled by arbitration, which is a different way of resolving disputes.

When a case is sent to the District Court, it’s treated as if it started there. The District Court will then handle the case according to its own rules.

You should know that the District Court is a different kind of court that can deal with a wider range of cases than the Tribunal.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM95586.

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82: Exclusion of other jurisdictions, or

“This law says that only special courts can handle certain cases, unless they started before this law was made or if a judge says it's okay.”

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83A: Referral of complaints to Health and Disability Commissioner, or

“The Tribunal can talk to and send complaints to the Health and Disability Commissioner if a landlord who provides health services does something wrong.”

Part 3 The Tenancy Tribunal
Jurisdiction

83Transfer of proceedings to District Court

  1. Where any proceedings have been commenced before the Tribunal that the Tribunal has no jurisdiction to hear and determine, the Tribunal may, instead of striking out the proceedings, order that they be transferred to the District Court in its ordinary civil jurisdiction.

  2. The Tribunal may order that any proceedings be transferred to the District Court in its ordinary civil jurisdiction if the Tribunal is satisfied that the proceedings would be more properly determined in that court.

  3. The Tribunal shall not make an order under subsection (1) or subsection (2) in respect of a claim if any agreement of a kind described in section 81(2) requires that the claim be submitted to arbitration.

  4. Any proceedings transferred to the District Court under this section shall be deemed to have been commenced by action in that court, and shall be dealt with by that court accordingly.

Notes
  • Section 83(1): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).
  • Section 83(2): replaced, on , by section 33 of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 1996 (1996 No 7).
  • Section 83(2): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).
  • Section 83(4): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).