KR Peters Senior Property Manager Rebecca Nicolls has experienced the state government's new rental dispute resolution process first hand and hopes her (so far) positive experience will help other property professionals handle disputes quickly and efficiently.

Ms Nicolls has used the free service, which is designed to streamline the handling of rental disputes, twice. One case was resolved via mediation. The other case couldn't be resolved and has now progressed to VCAT .

The first case was diverted from VCAT to Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria (RDRV) in early March. Ms Nicolls was contacted by a resolution co-ordinator whose job it is to bring parties together and resolve disagreements quickly and avoid a formal hearing at VCAT.

She sent the co-ordinator various documentation - the rental agreement, exit and entry inspection reports and invoices. The co-ordinator then contacted the renter to see if an agreement could be reached.

"In this case it couldn't be resolved, but their aim is to get all the documentation, speak to each party individually and try to come to a resolution. In this case it didn't work and it ended up with VCAT but I appreciated that the co-ordinator tried to find an agreement."

The whole process took a little over a month.

The second case involved repairs to a property that were in dispute and it was resolved through the RDRV process.

"It does work but you need to have two parties on board who actually want to negotiate and are thinking about the best way forward," Ms Nicolls said.

"If one party is not willing to negotiate there will be no resolution. Everyone has to give a little so that the matter does not end up in VCAT."

Ms Nicolls said she believes RDRV will help clear some of the backlog of cases before VCAT, a tribunal notoriously slow at handling cases.

KR Peters is currently involved in a case that has been before VCAT for two years. It takes months for hearing dates to be set and some cases involve six or more hearings.

She appreciates that one resolution co-ordinator handles each case from start to finish.

"So far I've found the service really good. They have set up a completely different portal to access the service. Any dispute can be taken to RDRV unless it's a possession order, which still have to go through VCAT."

According to the government, RDRV can mediate disputes over bonds, compensation, repairs and rent increases.

"They get in touch reasonably quickly to start the process and the portal is reasonably user friendly once you have experienced it once or twice."

Ms Nicolls is reserving her judgement as to whether the process will be good value for money for Victorian taxpayers in the long term.

"It is good the government has resourced it well, because it will potentially lessen the load at VCAT, but it is taxpayers' money they are spending. I am not sure yet if it is a good move or not. If it works it will streamline VCAT and expedite cases which will be an improvement on the current situation."

Anyone involved in a residential tenancy dispute can access the free service by calling 1300 01 7378, jumping online, or attending RDRV in person.

For professional property management services contact the team at KR Peters 5943 1111 or Wantirna 9800 0000.