Receipt of a Determination Order is the official notification to parties of the final outcome of a Dispute Resolution case. A Determination Order sets out the terms to be complied with, including any payments owing, and the length of time given to comply (compliance period).
The compliance period runs from the date of issue of the Determination Order. Specifically, this refers to the date on the cover letter enclosing the Determination Order and not to the date the Order was made by the Board. (For example, if a Determination Order refers to a compliance period of 7 days (i.e. X has 7 days to pay Y rent arrears) and the Determination Order is posted on 1 January (the date on the letter enclosing the Determination Order), the compliance period elapses on 8 January.
Parties are obliged to deal with compliance/payment arrangements directly between each other and neither party will ordinarily receive a notice or reminder from the RTB in this regard. (Further involvement by the RTB will only occur on receipt of a request to consider taking enforcement proceedings on behalf of a party, where the matter cannot be settled directly between parties.)
HOW TO COMPLY WITH A DETERMINATION ORDER
- You should contact the party to whom the payment is due to arrange an agreeable method of settlement; OR
- If you do not have current contact details for the other party, payment(s) may be submitted to the RTB for transmission on your behalf.
In circumstances where the RTB agree to facilitate forwarding of payments on behalf of parties the following rules will apply:
- Payment(s) must be forwarded by post in the form of a cheque (crossed), bank draft, money order or postal order (not cash), enclosing copy Determination Order, or case reference number.
- Where a Determination Order directs payment to a number of parties, individual cheques should be made payable to each of the named parties. (This is required as banks will not accept cheques made out to two or more people unless the parties concerned have a joint bank account. Therefore, to enable the parties to lodge their cheques, individual cheques are required.)
- Payments should never be made out to the RTB, unless specifically stated in the terms of the Determination Order.
A party who fails to comply with one or more terms of a Determination Order is open to having civil proceedings taken against him/her in the District Court.
The party in favour of whom the Determination Order is made (or the RTB on their behalf) may commence enforcement proceedings through the Courts where satisfied that there has been non-compliance with the terms of an Order.