Our Contact Centre will be closed from 5pm on 24 December 2024, reopening at 8am on 3 January 2025. National Office (Aitken Street, Wellington) reception will be closed from 5pm on Friday 20 December, reopening at 8am on Monday 6 January 2025. For more information, see Court and Tribunal hours
If you bought a vehicle from a private seller and want to dispute the sale – you’ll need to go through the Disputes Tribunal.
Disputes Tribunal(external link)
If you’re making a claim against a registered trader or from a trader that meets the criteria for registration but isn’t, we can register your application when we receive it.
We send a copy of your claim and a notice to the trader that tells them to talk to you about the application within 14 days of receiving the notice (unless the adjudicator changes the date). The trader then needs to tell the tribunal in writing about the outcome of those discussions.
If the dispute is not settled by those discussions or we don’t hear back from the trader within 14 days, we’ll organise a hearing.
We’ll send you a letter with the time, date and place of the hearing of your application. The earliest a hearing can happen after we receive your application is 4 weeks. Usually hearings are held 1 to 2 months after you file your claim.
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