We receive hundreds of complaints each week and prioritise the complaints in order of:
- urgency problems (such as evictions)
- risk to the consumer and the community.
This means there can be a delay if your complaint is lower risk than others.
Conciliation is voluntary for both you and the trader. Understanding the wait times may help you decide if conciliation is for you.
If you decide to wait for conciliation, we will do our best to help you resolve your complaint.
You may choose to resolve your issue by contacting the trader or landlord again, or if that doesn’t work, through the relevant court or tribunal instead.
Conciliation timeframes and prioritisation
The below timeframes cover assessment, early intervention and conciliation. Investigations will likely take considerably longer, depending on how serious the problem is and if court action is needed.
| Complaint type | Urgent issues - high priority (Usual timeframe) | General issues (Usual timeframe) |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer | Recalls, safety, issues affecting large group of people (2-3 weeks) | minor product or service issues, flight or travel credits (Up to 3 months) |
| Tenancy | Evictions, family and domestic violence, unlawful lock outs, rent arrears (1 week) | Bonds paid for previous tenancies, minor conduct issues (4-6 weeks) |
| Motor vehicle | Recalls, financial hardship (with evidence), unlicensed dealing or repairing (2 - 3 weeks) | Minor issues with new vehicles, repairs or delivery delays (up to 3 months) |
| Other complaints | Assessed on a case-by-case basis, includes residential parks, retirement villages and other areas. | |
Results
In the 2024-2025 financial year
- number of complaints received: Over 14,000
- conciliation files started: 12,035
- conciliation files finalised: 10,211
- files assessed with no further action: 2,221
- total redress* value: $7 million.
Redress means the compensation or in-kind value to address the issue a consumer complained about.
The above data is from the Year in review 2024 - 2025. The report provides more details about the results of our conciliation, compliance and investigations. Past year in review reports are also available.