"Living in a retirement village has the capacity to be a great lifestyle decision, sadly it also has the capacity to be your very worst financial decision." - RETVILLDOTNET.
An example for a village with the Deferred Management Fee calculated on the ingoing $$$.
"My father must have been one of the few people who lost money when he sold his home in a booming Melbourne property market. This huge loss on his home, in a popular suburb not far from the CBD, was despite it selling for more than he paid for it. The problem? He bought into a retirement village." - Diana Thorp. Sunday Herald Sun. 22/08/21
An example for a village with the Deferred Management Fee calculated on the outgoing $$$.

Wednesday 16 May 2018

Retirement Living Residents Speak Out

Retirement Living Residents Speak Out.

Experts from Consumer Action Law Centre ran a session in partnership with Housing for the Aged Action Group, Council on the Ageing and Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria on Making Your Complaint Count for residents of retirement housing.

"Increasing the number of complaints to Consumer Affairs Victoria will demonstrate the size of the problem and create momentum for CAV to act more strongly and push them to investigate the issues. We want to make retirement housing better by improving the regulation system – be part of the change and have your voice heard!"

The workshop was aimed at residents of all types of retirement housing.


   Image courtesy of HAAG

In the image above a retirement village resident raises with senior staff from Consumer Affairs Victoria what the resident saw as a serious issue and that the resident felt had not received a serious enough response from the department.

Background to the image above -
The operator of the village being discussed breached the provisions of the Retirement Villages Act 1986 and will gain financially in order of $2,000,000.00 as a result of this breach.  Following a change in the law applicable from July 1 2014 the operator failed to issue a Fact Sheet for a period of approximately 18 months, a clear breach of the Act. Once the operator commenced issuing a Fact Sheet the prospective resident was advised through the Fact Sheet that they would not be responsible for the payment of the refurbishment cost of the unit they occupied on their departure from the village. (refurbishment costs can be as high as $80,000.00)  The occupancy contract executed however stated that the resident will be responsible for this cost on their departure from the village, again a clear breach of the Act.  The residents of the village will collectively be the poorer for this two million dollars despite a breach of the law by the operator. 

 The resident believes the actions of Consumer Affairs in the matter was although to advise the operator to stop doing it took no action to remove the burden from the residents of the payment of this $2m dollars despite the clear breach of the law by the village operator. There is documentary evidence showing that the operator continued to breach the law despite the advice from consumer affairs that their actions were a breach of the provisions of the Retirement Villages Act 1986.

Retirement Living Residents Speak Out
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Function of Government

The role of government is to create an environment for commerce to function whilst at the same time protecting retirees and particularly vulnerable retirees from both financial and emotional harm emanating from that function.

The Victorian Retirement Villages Act 1986 provides the environment for commerce to function but fails to fully protect retirees from financial and emotional harm as a result of it.

The Victorian legislative definition of a retirement village in demanding the payment of an 'in-going' amount without the transfer of property ownership is a major contributor to that financial and emotional harm suffered by retirees.


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