Mediation, adjudication or tribunal: which to choose

The RTB offers three ways to resolve a dispute. Mediation is free, private and voluntary, and it ends in an agreement or in nothing. Adjudication costs €30 and ends in a decision that binds both sides. A tribunal is the appeal from either, costs €30 or €85, sits as a panel of three, and publishes its report.

The choice is made on the application form. It turns on three things: whether you want a decision or an agreement, whether you can live with a public hearing, and how long you can wait. The RTB Annual Report 2024 gives average durations of about 7 weeks for mediation, about 17 weeks for adjudication and about 15 weeks for a tribunal.

Ring Threshold on 1800 454 454, Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm, before you choose. The advisers see all three every week and can say which suits your facts. Whichever you pick, the process is built for self-representation; a solicitor is not needed.

The three stages side by side

Mediation: private and free

A mediator, usually by telephone, speaks to you and to the landlord and helps you find terms you can both accept. The mediator does not decide anything and does not say who is right. Nothing said in mediation is reported, nothing is published, and if it fails the adjudicator later hears the case afresh with no knowledge of what was offered.

If you reach agreement, the terms are written up and both sides have a short cooling-off period in which either can withdraw. If neither does, the RTB issues a determination order on the agreed terms, which is as enforceable as any other order. A landlord who then does not pay can be taken to the District Court like any other.

Mediation suits a dispute where the facts are not much contested and the question is the figure or the timing. A deposit where some deduction is fair but the landlord's is too high. A repair the landlord accepts is needed but has not done. A rent review both sides know is over the cap. It also suits anyone who needs the matter kept private.

Its limit is consent. Mediation needs the landlord to take part, and a landlord who does not answer the RTB's letters cannot be mediated with. In that case the RTB moves the application to adjudication.

Adjudication: public and binding

An adjudicator reads both parties' evidence, hears both at an informal hearing, and issues a written report with a decision. The decision binds both parties unless one of them appeals to a tribunal within 10 working days. If nobody appeals, the RTB issues a determination order on it.

For applications made from 14 September 2026 the hearing is public, the case appears on the RTB's weekly hearing list, and the published report names both parties and the address. For applications made before that date the old rule applies and the report is anonymised. RTB hearings are public since 14 September 2026 sets out what the report contains.

Adjudication suits a dispute where you need a decision: a notice you say may be invalid, a landlord who denies any breach, a deposit the landlord refuses to discuss, a lock-out. The adjudicator can declare whether a notice complied with the Act, order a sum paid, and direct the landlord to do or stop doing something. RTB damages: what is actually awarded explains the figures.

Tribunal: the appeal

A tribunal is a fresh hearing before three members, not a review of the adjudicator's reasoning. Either party can appeal, for €30 after mediation or €85 after adjudication, within 10 working days. The tribunal hears the evidence again, can hear new evidence sent in advance, and issues a determination that the RTB turns into an order. The report is published.

A tribunal is worth it where the adjudicator's report misread a document or a date, or where a witness who missed the first hearing can attend the second. It is also worth it where the sum is large enough to justify another three months and a public hearing. It is not worth it as a second roll of the dice on the same evidence; a tribunal can reduce as well as increase an award, and the other party can appeal too. Appealing to a tribunal sets out the steps.

Choosing when privacy matters

Some tenants cannot afford a public hearing and a published report with their name and address on it. A tenant with a protection order or a safety order, whose address must not be findable. A tenant with an asylum claim or an immigration application under way who does not want a published dispute on the record. A tenant whose employer is also the landlord, where a public report reaches the workplace. A tenant who shares a surname with a small community.

For those tenants mediation is the private route, and the decision to choose it is reasonable and not a weakness. The agreement is still binding and still enforceable. If the landlord refuses mediation, tell the RTB in writing why a public hearing puts you at risk and ask what it can do. The RTB has a discretion over how a hearing is run, though the Act now sets publication as the rule. Threshold can help with that letter, and the letter builder has a confirm-in-writing format you can adapt.

Choosing when time matters

Mediation is the quickest route on the 2024 figures, at about 7 weeks, but only where it works; a failed mediation adds its weeks to the 17 for adjudication. If the landlord has already refused to engage with you at all, mediation is unlikely to succeed and adjudication from the start is the shorter path.

While any of the three runs, the tenancy continues. Keep paying rent, keep the home as you found it, and keep every new message in your tenancy file. A dispute about a notice pauses nothing except the landlord's ability to treat the notice as settled; a dispute about a rent review pauses the increase.

Where this leaves you

Mediation is free and private and ends in an agreement, adjudication costs €30 and ends in a binding decision at a public hearing, and a tribunal is the three-person appeal from either. The 2024 averages are about 7, 17 and 15 weeks. Choose mediation where the facts are agreed or where you need privacy, adjudication where you need a decision, and a tribunal only where a fresh hearing would change the evidence. Ring Threshold on 1800 454 454 before you tick the box. How to make an RTB dispute application covers the form, and RTB fees and time limits the windows.