Avila v Director-General, Department of Finance & Services, NSW Fair Trading [2014] NSWCATOD 53

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Avila v Director-General, Department of Finance & Services, NSW Fair Trading [2014] NSWCATOD 53 Decision date: 12 May 2014 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: S Frost, Senior Member Decision: Decision under review set aside; substitute a decision to renew the Applicant's builder's licence. Catchwords: Home building - contractor licence - application for renewal - applicant had been a director of a company in external administration - whether Tribunal of the opinion there is "no evident risk" that future work would not be completed Legislation Cited: Home Building Act 1989 Home Building Regulation 2004 Cases Cited: Alford Building and Construction Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Fair Trading [2005] NSWADT 254; Pobjie v Commissioner for Fair Trading (No. 2) [2008] NSWADT 39 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Washington Avila (Applicant) Department of Fair Trading (Respondent) Representation: Mr P Adams, Adams Partners Lawyers (Applicant); Mr W Maynard (Respondent) File Number(s): 1330272

reasons for decision 1The Applicant, Washington Avila, has been a licensed builder since 1995. In March 2013 he applied for renewal of his licence but the Respondent (to which I will refer as the Office of Fair Trading, or OFT) refused his application. 2Mr Avila asked the OFT to review its decision but the OFT still decided that his licence should not be renewed. Mr Avila then applied to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) for review of the OFT's decision. 3On the first day of hearing, in the General Division of the ADT on 28 November 2013, Mr Avila did not have a full appreciation of the OFT's reasons for refusing to renew his licence. The proceeding was adjourned part heard to allow him further time to gather material that might assist his case. 4The matter resumed on 6 January 2014. By then the ADT had been merged into the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of New South Wales (NCAT) by the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NCAT Act). Clause 7(2) in Schedule 1 to the NCAT Act provides that, in circumstances such as these, I am taken to have been duly appointed as a member of NCAT and that I am to continue to hear the matter and to determine it, sitting as NCAT.