CRT Counterclaim: How to File One in BC

Someone filed a CRT claim against you, but you believe they owe you money too. Maybe the contractor who is suing you for an unpaid invoice left the job half-finished and you paid for another contractor to complete it. Maybe the buyer who wants a refund damaged the item before returning it. The CRT lets you bring your own claim into the same dispute — but the mechanics differ depending on whether you are at the CRT or in Provincial Court.

Counterclaims at the CRT (Up to $5,000)

At the Civil Resolution Tribunal, the counterclaim is a separate step that follows your initial Dispute Response. You do not embed it in the response form itself.

How to file:

1. Submit your Dispute Response first — this is your denial or admission of the applicant's claim. Do not wait to file the response while you prepare the counterclaim; the 14-day deadline applies to the response, not to the counterclaim.
2. Log into your CRT account and select "Make a Counterclaim."
3. Set out the factual basis of your claim and the dollar amount you are seeking.
4. Pay the counterclaim filing fee.

Third-party claims work similarly. If you believe someone who is not currently a party to the dispute is responsible for the loss (a subcontractor your general contractor hired, for example), you can file a Third-Party Claim under CRT Rule 3.2. The filing fee for a third-party claim is $125, and you must serve the Third-Party Dispute Notice on the new party within 30 calendar days.

Counterclaims in Provincial Court (Form 2)

For claims between $5,001 and $35,000, counterclaims work differently — they are embedded directly in the lower section of Form 2 (Reply). When filling out Form 2, you will see a section labelled for counterclaims where you set out what happened and how much you are claiming.

Filing a counterclaim in Provincial Court adds a $100 filing fee on top of the standard reply fee. The claimant then has 14 calendar days from being served with your counterclaim to file a Reply to Counterclaim.

Set-Off vs Counterclaim

A set-off reduces the applicant's claim rather than creating a new one. If the applicant says you owe $4,000 for renovations and you say $1,500 of that work was defective, you are not claiming $1,500 from them — you are arguing their claim should be reduced to $2,500.

Set-offs are raised in the Dispute Response itself (or the "DISPUTE" section of Form 2). You do not need to file a separate counterclaim or pay an additional fee for a set-off. The key distinction: a set-off can only reduce the applicant's claim to zero. If you believe you are owed more than they are claiming, the excess has to come through a counterclaim.

Timing and Strategy

The counterclaim does not delay your response deadline. File your Dispute Response within the 14-day window regardless. Then file the counterclaim as soon as you have gathered the supporting facts.

If your independent claim exceeds $5,000, it falls outside the CRT's small claims jurisdiction. A respondent seeking court resolution may apply for an exemption under section 11.3 of the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act, using Form 8 within 14 calendar days after submitting the CRT response. A judge decides whether the statutory exemption criteria are met; the application does not automatically pause CRT deadlines.

Treat the filing fee as an upfront cost. Check whether it can be claimed under the CRT or court rules before assuming it will be reimbursed.

For a walkthrough of how counterclaims, set-offs, and third-party claims fit into the full response process, the BC CRT Dispute Response Guide covers all three options with a Response Strategy Planner worksheet.

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