A “third-party claim” is when a respondent to a claim believes someone else (a “third party”) is responsible for the issue, and makes their own claim against that third party. A third-party claim is usually about the same issue as the original claim. For example:
- Sam makes a claim against 123 Furniture, asking for a refund because the couch he bought was broken when it was delivered.
- 123 Furniture makes a third-party claim against XYZ Delivery, asking for the full purchase price of the couch and claiming that XYZ Delivery broke it during shipping.
Who can make a third-party claim?
Any respondent in the original claim can make a third-party claim. If the original claim had more than one respondent, that means there might be more than one third-party claim.
If you want to make a claim against the same applicants in the original claim, that’s called a “counterclaim”. Learn about making a counterclaim.
If you’re not sure who to make a claim against, you might want to get legal advice. The CRT can’t give legal advice, or tell you who you should make a claim against.
How do I make a third-party claim?
You can make a third-party claim after you respond to the original claim.
The form will ask for details about your claim, and who the third party is. It can be a person or organization, or more than one.
Pay the application fee by credit card, at a ServiceBC location, or by sending us a cheque or money order. If you can’t afford the fee, you can ask for a fee waiver at the end of the application form. Learn more about fee waivers.
What happens after I make a third-party claim?
What to expect after you make a third-party claim:
- The CRT will review your third-party claim application form. We’ll contact you if information is missing or needs clarification, or if we haven’t received your fee payment. If we don’t receive the information or payment, we may decide not to issue a Dispute Notice for the third-party claim.
- If your third-party claim application is accepted, we’ll generate an official CRT Dispute Notice and email it to you.
- The CRT will normally serve the Dispute Notice and instructions for response on the third-party claim respondents for you. If the CRT tells you that you must serve the respondents for a third-party claim, you have 30 days to serve the Dispute Notice package. You must also include the original Dispute Notice and all Dispute Responses. Learn more about serving a Dispute Notice package.
- Wait for the respondents to respond to the third-party claim Dispute Notice. Once they respond, we’ll contact you with next steps.