If the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) accepts your application, they will provide you with a “Notice of Dispute Resolution Proceeding Package” that lists the date and time of your hearing, instructions on how to connect to the conference call, and copies of the application and submitted evidence. Once your hearing package has been made available by the RTB, you have three days to serve it to the respondent(s) in one of the following ways:
- by delivering it in person to the landlord or an agent of the landlord; or
- by sending it by registered mail to your landlord’s home address, or to the address where they carry on business as a landlord.
Exceptions
If you are unable to serve the hearing package in person or by registered mail because a respondent is avoiding service or cannot be found, you can submit RTB Form, Application for Substituted Service. To be successful with this type of application, you will have to show the RTB:
- evidence of your reasonable attempts to serve the documents according to the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA); or
- evidence that the other party is unlikely to receive the documents if served according to the RTA.
Your application should also include your proposed method of service and a rationale for why you believe it will work.
Resources
- TRAC Webpage – Applying for Dispute Resolution
- TRAC Webpage – Serving Documents
- RTA Section 89 – Special rules for certain documents
- RTB Rules of Procedure Rule 3.1 – Documents that must be served with the Notice of Dispute Resolution Proceeding Package
- RTB Form – Application for Substituted Service
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