The Peel region has been quick to take up a new property mediation pilot on offer in Western Australia, aiming to help resolve property disputes between couples outside of court.
The initiative, run by Legal Aid WA, provides couples with assets less than $500,000 access to lawyer-assisted mediation during a separation, if one person is eligible for legal aid.
The pilot is first of its kind in the state and has been in high demand since it was announced in January, almost filling to its capacity of 100 applications.
Applications from the Peel region make up almost a third of those in regional areas, the second highest behind the South West.
Interest has been even greater in the metropolitan area with 73 successful applications filed.
We've just been swamped. We've never got enough funding to service the demand - this is always an ongoing problem.
- Legal Aid WA solicitor in charge of dispute resolution Lynette Hill
Legal Aid WA solicitor in charge of dispute resolution, Lynette Hill, told the Mandurah Mail it was an "indication of the demand".
"There's a gap in the marketplace for services for your average mum and dad out there in the community who have separated and want to resolve a property dispute but have nowhere to go," she said.
"It can be very overwhelming for people because they don't know what their legal rights are.
"Anecdotally, we think a lot of people walk away because they don't know where to go or where to turn... and there's limited places people can actually go.
"We've just been swamped. We've never got enough funding to service the demand - this is always an ongoing problem."
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Ms Hill said she "couldn't say" if there was a pattern or particular reason the Peel region had shown so much interest in the mediation opportunity.
"It was taken up so quickly within the last two months that it might have just been first-in-best-dressed," she said.
"I don't think we can really look at the distribution and think that there are more problems in one area over another because it happened so quickly."
Ms Hill added that Legal Aid WA hoped the funding would be ongoing, given the obvious need for the service.
"Hopefully more funding will be released from the Australian government so we can go forward with a continuing program and help more people," she said.
"[The program] is being evaluated by the Australian Institute of Family Studies and we will have to wait until that evaluation has been done to see."
The first conference as part of the two-year pilot is set to take place later this month.
