VCAT Points of Defence: How to Answer Each Paragraph (Admit, Deny or Not Admit)

If VCAT has ordered you to file Points of Defence, the short answer is this: go through the applicant’s Points of Claim one numbered paragraph at a time and say whether you admit or deny each one, then add the key facts of your own defence in date order. Skip it and VCAT’s own guide says you “will be taken to admit all the allegations in the Points of Claim”. That single line is why this document matters more than most respondents realise.

For the forms, fees and each step, see our guide to making an VCAT application.

Claim Done’s Tribunal Response pack (A$129 flat) turns your side of the story into a paragraph-by-paragraph position, a chronology and an evidence list you can work from. You can start it here. The rest of this guide shows you how VCAT expects the document to look, using VCAT’s own sample.

When VCAT asks for Points of Defence

Goods and services disputes at VCAT now run on a written timetable. VCAT’s after-you-apply page says that about 20 weeks after it receives an application, it sends an order setting out when each party has to send its documents, and that those steps take about 9 to 12 weeks. Only after that does VCAT decide whether the case goes to a hearing or a mediation.

Do the sums (20 weeks, plus 9 to 12) and a respondent can be looking at around seven months between the applicant filing and anyone sitting in a hearing room. That sounds like plenty of time. It is not, because the date that counts is not the hearing. It is the date in the order for your Points of Defence, and the order usually comes long after you first heard about the claim.

VCAT’s guide to goods and services orders explains what the order is asking for: “documents explaining what their case is about. These include Points of Claim and Points of Defence and may also include Points of Counterclaim.” The applicant goes first. You answer what they wrote.

What happens if you don’t file them

Most people who get a VCAT notice plan to explain themselves on the day. VCAT’s guide closes that door in two places.

First: “If the respondent does not file Points of Defence the respondent will be taken to admit all the allegations in the Points of Claim.” Every fact the applicant set out (the price, the promise, the defect, the amount owing) becomes an agreed fact.

Second, at the final hearing, parties “may not be permitted to raise any new issues at the final hearing not raised in their application, Points of Claim or Points of Defence or to rely on any supporting documents that they had not provided in accordance with VCAT’s orders.”

Put those together. A respondent who stays silent has admitted the applicant’s facts and may not be allowed to raise a defence they never wrote down. The guide also warns that if any party misses the time limits, VCAT “may decide the case based on whatever documents and other information is available” at the time.

If you need more time, the guide says to tell VCAT and the other parties as soon as possible and before the time limit expires. Asking after the deadline has passed is a much weaker position.

VCAT’s rules for Points of Defence

The order guide sets the rules out plainly. Points of Defence must:

• tell VCAT and the applicant what you dispute about the claim;
• respond to all the applicant’s allegations, in each paragraph of the Points of Claim;
• state whether you “admit” or “deny” each allegation;
• set out any additional defence using only the key facts, in date order and in numbered paragraphs.

The consequences of each answer are spelled out too. If you admit an allegation, “it will be taken to be an agreed fact in the case.” If you deny it, “the applicant must prove that allegation at the final hearing.” And if you raise a defence of your own, you carry the job of proving it.

That last point is easy to miss. Denying shifts work onto the applicant. Raising a new defence puts work on you. Both are legitimate, but you should know which one you are doing in each paragraph.

Admit, deny or “does not admit”

The guide talks about admitting or denying. VCAT’s own sample Points of Defence uses a third answer as well, and it is the one respondents most often need.

The sample is a reply to VCAT’s sample claim about a car sold without a roadworthy certificate. Its paragraph 4 reads that the respondent “does not admit para 4 and has no independent knowledge of the car after 1 January 2022.” That is the honest answer when the applicant alleges something you simply cannot know, such as what happened to the goods after they left your hands. You are not saying it is false. You are saying the applicant has to prove it.

Here is how the three answers work in practice:

• Admit when the fact is true, such as the date of sale or the price. It becomes an agreed fact and nobody has to prove it.
• Deny when you say the fact is wrong. The applicant must prove it at the hearing.
• Does not admit when you have no way of knowing whether it is true. You put the applicant to proof without claiming it is false.

Admitting the boring facts is not a weakness. It narrows the case to what is really in dispute, and a member reading a document that denies the date of a sale you obviously made will trust the rest of it less.

How VCAT’s sample is laid out

The sample opens with one line: “In response to the Points of Claim, the respondent:” and then answers each paragraph in the same order the applicant used. Paraphrasing its structure:

• Paragraph 1 (the sale): admitted.
• Paragraph 2 (the promise of a roadworthy certificate): denied outright.
• Paragraph 3 (how the agreement was made): the sample gives two alternatives. Either deny the conversation and what was said in it, or admit the signed document but deny that it contained the promise alleged. The second version is followed by “the respondent also says”: clause 5 of that document said the respondent would get a roadworthy certificate only if the applicant paid an extra $2,000, and the applicant did not pay it and said on a stated date they would get their own.
• Paragraph 4 (the car breaking down after the sale): not admitted, because the respondent has no knowledge of it.
• Paragraph 5 (when the applicant says they first learnt there was no certificate): denied.
• Paragraph 6 (the expenses): denied that they relate to making the car roadworthy, and not admitted that they were incurred at all.

Notice how short it is. No history of the relationship, no complaints about the applicant’s attitude, no argument about fairness. Each line answers one paragraph or states one fact, and the whole defence turns on a single clause and a single unpaid amount.

If you are the applicant reading this to see what is coming, our guide to writing VCAT Points of Claim walks through the matching sample on the other side.

An outline you can follow

For a typical tradie or supplier claim where the applicant says the work was defective, the same structure might read:

Points of Defence

In response to the Points of Claim, the respondent:

1. Admits paragraph 1.
2. Admits paragraph 2, and says the quote accepted by email on [date] is the whole agreement.
3. Denies paragraph 3. The respondent says the work was completed on [date] in accordance with the quote.
4. Does not admit paragraph 4. The respondent has no knowledge of the condition of the [item] after [date].
5. Denies the amount claimed in paragraph 5.

The respondent also says:

6. On [date], the respondent offered in writing to return and inspect the work. The applicant did not reply.
7. Item [x] in the applicant’s list of expenses relates to work outside the quote.

Keep paragraph numbers matching the applicant’s wherever you can. The member will read the two documents side by side.

Counterclaims, documents and sending it

If you have your own claim against the applicant, that is a separate thing. VCAT’s respondent page calls it a counterclaim, says you make it by submitting your own application, and warns you may need to pay an application fee. Check the current figure on our VCAT fees guide or VCAT’s own site. Points of Counterclaim are prepared the same way as Points of Claim. Don’t bury a counterclaim inside your defence; a defence answers their claim, a counterclaim asks for an order of your own.

The same order requires every party to send all documents in their possession or control that they want to rely on, or “which might be harmful to their case or helpful to the case of another party.” That second half matters: the email where you admitted a problem goes in too. The guide asks for documents in date order, in PDF, and as a single page-numbered PDF once they pass 50 pages.

On sending: if both sides use myVCAT, uploading your document to the portal counts as sending it to them. If not, you email VCAT and copy in every other party, with the VCAT reference number in the subject line. Our guide to VCAT service and the declaration of service covers the form you may need to complete.

Getting it written without a solicitor

VCAT’s respondent page says that if the claim is under $15,000, VCAT generally does not allow a lawyer or other professional representative to speak for you. So for most goods and services disputes, the person who writes the Points of Defence and the person who stands behind them at the hearing is you.

That is where Claim Done fits. The Tribunal Response pack costs A$129 flat, with no subscription. You describe what the applicant is claiming and what they got wrong, set your position on each point (deny, dispute or partly admit), and the document engine builds a response summary, a defence position statement, a chronology and an evidence list, usually in about five minutes. You review it and approve it. If you give us the applicant’s email address, it is then sent to them by email; either way you can download it, and you lodge it with VCAT through myVCAT or by email yourself, in the form VCAT’s order asks for. Two amendments are included.

Compare that with the cost of saying nothing: every allegation admitted, and possibly no chance to raise your side later. Claim Done is not a law firm, and the document reflects the facts and evidence you provide, so the better your dates and documents, the sharper the result.

Got a VCAT order with a Points of Defence deadline on it? Start your Tribunal Response on Claim Done, answer the questions with the applicant’s Points of Claim in front of you, and you will have your paragraph-by-paragraph position ready to check against the order before the deadline arrives. If the case later heads to a hearing, read what happens at a VCAT compulsory conference and hearing next.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I don't file Points of Defence at VCAT?

VCAT's guide to goods and services orders says a respondent who does not file Points of Defence will be taken to admit all the allegations in the Points of Claim. You may also be refused permission to raise new issues at the final hearing that you did not put in writing, so file by the date in the order or ask VCAT for more time before it passes.

Do I have to answer every paragraph of the Points of Claim?

Yes. VCAT's guide says Points of Defence must respond to all the applicant's allegations in each paragraph and state whether you admit or deny each one. Keep your numbering matched to the applicant's so the member can read the two documents side by side.

What does 'does not admit' mean in a VCAT defence?

VCAT's own sample Points of Defence uses it for a fact the respondent has no knowledge of, such as what happened to a car after it was sold. It does not say the fact is false; it leaves the applicant to prove it. Use deny when you say the fact is wrong, and admit when it is true.

Is a counterclaim the same as Points of Defence?

No. A defence answers the applicant's claim. A counterclaim is your own claim against the applicant, made by submitting your own application to VCAT, and you may need to pay an application fee. Points of Counterclaim are then prepared the same way as Points of Claim.

Can a lawyer write and argue my VCAT defence?

Anyone can help you write it, but VCAT says that if the claim is under $15,000 it generally does not allow a lawyer or other professional representative to speak for you. For most goods and services disputes you will present the defence yourself, so it needs to be clear and in your own control.