Skip to main content

Tribunal/VCAT Case Pack

When a tenancy dispute escalates to a tribunal — VCAT in Victoria, NCAT in NSW, QCAT in Queensland, equivalents in WA / SA / TAS / ACT / NT — the PM has to assemble a chronological narrative + evidence pack from months of scattered records. The case pack assembler does the gathering in seconds; the PM reviews, edits, signs, submits.

What it produces​

For a given (property, date range, case type), the assembler returns:

  1. Statement of Facts — multi-paragraph prose, factual tone, written in the agency's voice. Header → tenant → background → numbered chronology → conclusion → sign-off block.
  2. Chronology — the same events in tabular form, sorted oldest-first with timestamps + exhibit IDs.
  3. Exhibit list — numbered list of every maintenance request + work order in the window, ready for cross-reference into actual tribunal forms.
  4. Relief sought — tribunal-formatted numbered orders, per case type (rent arrears → seek termination + bond claim; bond claim → seek release; etc.). Any free-text relief the PM supplied is appended.
  5. Legal disclaimer — prominent reminder to verify facts + statutory citations before submission.

Case types supported​

Case typeTypical relief sought
Rent arrears + terminationPay arrears, terminate, possession order, bond release
End-of-tenancy bond claimBond release in agency's favour, payment of any shortfall
Damage claimCompensation for damage beyond fair wear and tear
Failure to repair / maintain (defending)Tenant claim dismissed; chronology evidences agency met its obligations
Termination disputeNotice valid, possession order
Other tribunal matterPM-supplied free-text orders

Data sources​

The assembler queries — within the date window:

  • Maintenance requests at the property (raw text, category, urgency, status, SLA, triage time)
  • Work orders linked to those requests (scope, cost ceiling, status, completion time, final cost)

Audit-log entries are deliberately excluded today — they'd add another layer of micro-detail (PM clicked X at HH:MM) that's noisy. Once we see what tribunals actually request in practice, we'll add them as an optional include.

Privacy​

Per AI Fallbacks & Privacy:

Sent to Claude:

  • Tenant name (when supplied — needed for the document to be legally addressable)
  • Property address (suburb + state + postcode + street; needed for the cover page)
  • Chronology entries (raw maintenance text, work-order scope text, dates, dollar figures)
  • The PM's free-text background + relief notes
  • Agency name + PM name (sign-off block)

Never sent:

  • Tenant email, mobile, lease number
  • Other tenants on the property
  • Any owner identity (case packs are tribunal-side, not owner-side)
  • Any internal database UUIDs in raw form (only short prefixed IDs like MR-abc12345)

The UI​

Case packs in the sidebar. Form fields:

FieldNotes
Property (dropdown)All properties at the agency
Tenant (optional dropdown)If a specific tenant is named in the dispute
Case type (dropdown)Drives the relief template
From / To (date pickers)Defaults to last 12 months
Relief sought (textarea, optional)Free-text relief language; appended to the auto-generated orders
Background notes (textarea, optional)Witness names, prior orders, lease specifics — woven into the narrative
Property manager nameSign-off line; defaults to the PM's email

Click Assemble pack. In ~2-3 seconds you get the full pack with Copy buttons for narrative / chronology / exhibits / relief individually, plus a Copy full pack button that combines all four sections.

What it does NOT do​

  • Does not file with a tribunal. Pure drafting. The PM submits via their normal channel (online portal or in-person form).
  • Does not persist. Drafts aren't stored. Re-draft any time with different windows / case types.
  • Does not cite specific statute sections. The system prompt explicitly tells Claude to use generic phrasing ("under the Act") — citations are the PM's responsibility to verify.
  • Does not invent events. Claude is told the chronology is the only factual basis. Anything not in the chronology or PM background is excluded.

API​

POST /api/v1/case-packs/draft
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "propertyId": "uuid",
  "tenantId": "uuid",
  "fromDate": "2025-04-01",
  "toDate": "2026-04-01",
  "caseType": "RENT_ARREARS",
  "reliefSought": "Compensation of $1,240 for cleaning costs...",
  "background": "Tenant has been in arrears since January...",
  "agencyName": "Harbour Property Management",
  "pmName": "Sarah Patel"
}

Response: full case pack JSON (narrative, chronology, exhibits, relief, disclaimer, modelVersion, draftedAt). See CasePackResponse in /api-reference for the full shape.

Heuristic fallback​

HeuristicCasePackDrafter produces a chronological recital — "On 12 March 2026 the tenant submitted a maintenance report..." — plus the per-case-type relief template. Less polished than Claude's prose, but factually correct and tribunal-readable. modelVersion reports heuristic-v0 in this mode. The structure of the response is identical regardless of which drafter served.

Why this is the moat feature​

End-of-tenancy disputes + arrears terminations are the #1 tribunal case category in AU residential property management. PMs spend 3-6 hours per case assembling timelines from PropertyMe exports + Word templates + memory. PMFriend already has the data — the case pack turns it into a tribunal-ready document with one click.

A PM who's lost a case at VCAT before because their evidence pack was incomplete will not go back to a system that doesn't have this. That's the design intent.

See also​