Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT)

This page has information for NTCAT applicants about how to serve documents to other parties. 

Who needs to serve documents

You must take reasonable steps to bring a document and its contents to the other party as soon as possible after your case starts.  

If NTCAT is not confident that a party has been served with a document, it may not go ahead with your case.

How to serve documents

You can serve documents directly to the party, or to someone representing the party. The following methods are likely to be accepted:

• in person - handed over or delivered to the party's residential or business address
• by mail - get a tracking number to prove the document reached the address
• by email - get a read receipt or email reply to prove the documents were received.

These methods are guidelines only. For example, if your case is about a tenancy that has ended, it may not be enough to show that the document arrived at the rental property.

If you can't serve a document

If you have taken reasonable steps to serve a document without success, NTCAT may either:

• tell you how to serve the document
• or deal with the matter despite not being confident that service has taken place.