District Court Rules 2014, rule 5.50
Your statement of defence must either admit or deny the facts alleged by the lender in their statement of claim.
The court rules state that if you deny an allegation, you must answer the substance of the allegation and not be evasive about it. For example, if the lender claims you received an amount of money, you can’t simply deny receiving that particular amount – instead, you must deny receiving that amount or any part of it, or you must state how much you did receive. If the statement of claim sets out particular circumstances relevant to the allegation, it’s not enough for you to deny it as alleged with those particular circumstances. In all cases, you have to give a fair and substantial answer.
If you don’t deny a particular allegation in your statement of defence, you’re treated as having admitted it.
Your statement of defence must give sufficient details of times, places, amounts, names of people, legal documents and other facts to allow the court and the lender to know what your defence is.