Members have nine months from when the dispute arose to file a notice of dispute with us. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to receive calls about claims that are beyond the nine-month deadline or are quickly approaching it. Having dealt with thousands of calls over the years, we get it, sometimes things can get away from us, especially if we get busy and most other business is going well.
However, the nine-month limitation of claims must be taken seriously as it prevents you to use any other recourse outside of DRC to resolve your dispute. DRC Mediation and Arbitration Rules, Article 4, states, “…the Claim is notified to the Corporation by way of a Notice of Dispute within nine (9) months of when the Claim arose or within nine (9) months of when the claimant ought reasonably to have known of its existence.”
The wording “ought reasonably to have known” is intended to address indirect situations where notice of a problem was not explicitly communicated by one party to another. An example would be when a cheque is returned for not sufficient funds.
Keep in mind that according to our rules, “Failure to file the claim with the Corporation (DRC) within this time shall be deemed and abandonment of the Claim and prevent recovery against another member.” In other words, you may have lost an opportunity to potentially recover some funds.
Our advice is to flag these accounts at the 6 month mark (or sooner) to prevent you from accidentally getting close to the 9 month deadline. Give our Help Desk a call, and check the DRC website to verify your buyers and suppliers are active members. To help make it easier for our members to monitor the DRC standing of their trading partners, in the coming months DRC will be publishing changes to membership statuses.
