Small Claims Tribunal HK: Cap. 338 Forms and Hearing

The Tribunal does not issue one single claim document. A claimant fills in Form 1, the Title to Claim, and Form 2, the Form of Claim, files both at the registry in the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, and receives Form 3 with the date and courtroom fixed for the call over. This pack is the drafting layer around those forms: the wording that goes into Form 2, the arithmetic behind the figure, the witness statement the adjudicator will direct you to file, and the execution paperwork you need if the defendant ignores the award. Forms 1 and 2 have to be filed in person at the registry, never by post, fax or email.

A claim pack is not a letter of demand. The demand letter is the pre-action step that fixes the amount in writing and often produces payment before a filing fee is spent, which is why our letter of demand for rent arrears is the natural first move in a rental dispute. Nor is it a District Court writ, where the pleadings, the right to be represented and the costs regime all change.

Section 5 of Cap. 338 gives the Tribunal jurisdiction over the claims listed in the Schedule, which confines it to money claims in contract, quasi-contract or tort within the financial ceiling, lifted from HK$50,000 to HK$75,000 by resolution of the Legislative Council with effect from 3 December 2018. Two provisions police it: section 8 forbids splitting a cause of action to squeeze each part under the limit, while section 9 lets a claimant abandon the excess and recover the balance.

Procedure is statutory from the first page. Section 12 requires proceedings to be commenced by filing a claim with the registrar in the prescribed form, in English or Chinese. Section 13 is the provision claimants underestimate: the claim must state the sum claimed and give particulars reasonably sufficient to inform the defendant of the ground of claim and of how the amount has been calculated. Section 14 obliges the registrar to fix a hearing within 60 days of filing. Hearings are informal under section 16, the adjudicator may inquire into any matter he considers relevant even if no party raised it, and section 23 switches off the rules of evidence. Section 19 removes the right of audience of any barrister or solicitor, so costs under section 24 cover expenses and lost wages, never legal fees.

Money and time complete the picture. Section 33 allows interest on the sum claimed from the accrual of the cause of action to the award, and makes the award carry interest at the judgment debt rate set under section 50 of the District Court Ordinance (Cap. 336) until satisfied. Section 32 makes the award enforceable in the District Court as a judgment of that court, and section 4(1)(a) of the Limitation Ordinance (Cap. 347) bars a contract or tort claim six years after the cause of action accrued. The Judiciary guide to Small Claims Tribunal procedure and enforcement sets out the current forms and fee bands.

The classic file is the unpaid invoice. A designer, a contractor or a trading company delivers, invoices, chases for months, then finds the debtor has stopped replying. Anything at or under the ceiling belongs here rather than in the District Court, and is worth filing once the last promise to pay has been broken. The second recurring scenario is the withheld deposit: a tenancy deposit that never came back, a prepayment for services never rendered, a beauty or tuition package cut short.

Property damage and defective work fill the rest. A vehicle damaged in a car park, a flat flooded by a renovation upstairs, a kitchen fitted with the wrong materials: each is a claim the Tribunal will hear, provided money is the only relief sought.

Two edge cases justify a careful pack. The first is the debt that slightly exceeds the ceiling, where section 9 lets you abandon the excess and stay in the cheaper forum, a trade off worth quantifying before you sign Form 2. The second is the old debt revived by conduct: under sections 23 and 24 of Cap. 347, a signed written acknowledgment or a part payment restarts the six year clock and often rescues a stale private loan between individuals.

• The party identification block follows what Form 1 demands. Every party needs a full legal name and a Hong Kong address, since post office boxes and care of addresses are refused at the counter, and a sole proprietor must be named in the "Chan Tai Man trading as XYZ Company" style used on the Business Registration Application Form.
• The statement of the ground of claim is drafted to section 13(d), in short numbered paragraphs telling the defendant what was agreed, what was delivered and what went wrong. Wording as vague as "money owed" leaves the adjudicator no basis for entering judgment if the defendant stays away.
• The calculation schedule breaks the figure down invoice by invoice, with dates, credits for part payments and a running balance, so the sum in Form 2 is traceable line by line. This usually decides whether an undefended claim is entered on the spot.
• The interest computation applies section 33 in two stages, pre award interest from the date the cause of action arose and post award interest at the judgment debt rate, with a daily figure you can update on the morning of the hearing.
• The witness statement is written in the first person, in numbered chronological paragraphs, confined to facts within the maker's own knowledge and paginated with the C and D convention. Hearsay dressed up as evidence is the commonest reason a sound claim collapses.
• The enforcement request closes the file with the praecipe and writ of fieri facias wording and a debtor asset checklist, so a winning claimant is not starting from a blank page if the award goes unpaid.

Hong Kong has one Small Claims Tribunal for the whole territory, so venue is never the question. What matters is whether the dispute belongs to the Tribunal at all, because the Schedule to Cap. 338 carves out several categories while section 5(2) makes claims within its jurisdiction non actionable elsewhere. Filing in the wrong forum costs you the fee and the months: the Tribunal transfers the case under section 7 rather than decide it.

Employment claims are the first exclusion. Wages, wages in lieu of notice, severance and long service payment go to the Labour Tribunal under Cap. 25, or to the Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board under Cap. 453, so a dispute over a final payslip belongs with our employment and HR templates drafted to the Employment Ordinance rather than here.

Land and tenancy matters split in a way that catches landlords out. A money claim for arrears within the ceiling is a small claim, but possession of the premises is not, and new tenancy or rating disputes go to the Lands Tribunal under Cap. 17. Estate agency complaints before the Estate Agents Authority under section 49 of the Estate Agents Ordinance (Cap. 511) are excluded while that body retains jurisdiction.

Defamation, maintenance agreements and licensed money lending complete the list, the Schedule barring defamation actions, proceedings on a maintenance agreement within section 14 of the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Ordinance (Cap. 192), and recovery actions by a lender licensed under the Money Lenders Ordinance (Cap. 163). A private lender who holds no licence is not caught by that exclusion and may sue in the Tribunal like any other creditor. Everything above the ceiling goes to the District Court, and under section 10 a counterclaim outside the Tribunal's jurisdiction drags the whole case with it.

You begin by identifying the defendant properly, because the form is unforgiving about names. The questionnaire asks whether you are suing an individual, a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a company, then prompts you for the company search or Business Registration details the adjudicator will want at the call over. You set out the agreement or the incident, the dates, the amount invoiced and anything already paid, and the pack assembles the particulars in the format section 13 requires.

The interest step comes next. You give the date the cause of action arose, and the schedule computes the pre award period, leaving the post award rate to be inserted at judgment. Questions about your evidence then produce a witness statement in your own voice rather than a form to sign blind, and if you send someone in your place the pack generates the written authorisation naming your representative the Tribunal requires before it will hear anyone other than a party.

Naming the wrong defendant wastes the most time. A shop trading under a brand name is often a sole proprietorship, and suing the brand rather than the proprietor produces an award enforceable against nobody. The related failure is the address: a care of address or a post office box will be rejected, and a claim that cannot be served eventually dies. Splitting one debt into two to stay under the ceiling breaches section 8 and is spotted at the call over.

Deadlines are the second trap. An application to review an award under section 27A must be filed within 7 days, and an application to the Court of First Instance for leave to appeal on a point of law under section 28 runs on the same clock from service of the written award. Filing an application for leave to appeal does not stay execution unless a stay is ordered under section 31. The last mistake is treating judgment as the finish line. The Tribunal chases nobody, and a claimant who never asks for interest under section 33 or never applies for a writ of fieri facias has bought a piece of paper. Tight paperwork upstream, starting with the payment terms in our Hong Kong business and contract templates, keeps most files away from the registry altogether.