Horror Stories Continue for Retirement Villages

The ABC reports - For almost a decade, pensioners Trish Reece and her husband Wayne have been living in a gated village in Shepparton in regional Victoria, run by the controversial land lease operator Lifestyle Communities.

Now they want to get out.

"We don't want to live here anymore," she says.

But she says they are stuck, financially, due to the so-called exit fees charged by the company when a resident sells their home.

For the full story click the link below -
Retirement Village Horror Stories Continue

How an idyllic retirement village became a 'financial prison'

After spending 36 years investigating shoplifters, drug trafficking, burglary, fraud and deception, it was time for the quiet life. Seduced by promises of low maintenance and resort-style living at an affordable price, he bought into a Lifestyle Communities development at Wollert, impressed with its high-security cameras and boom gates that guarded a manufactured urban landscape of neat rows of uniform houses and perfectly manicured fake lawns. It was a setting reminiscent of the Hollywood movie The Truman Show. "The way it was presented to me and my wife, I expected everything to be above board, knowing that I'm dealing with Lifestyle, a publicly listed company," he says. "I did my homework, and I checked on them. And I would have assumed that everything was kosher." But 18 months later, earlier this year, he and two other residents, Thom Meads and Steve Doudle, found themselves investigating the utopia they thought they'd bought into. "To me, it's like I'm in a financial prison," Gauci says. "I've got to bail myself out in order to get out, and it's just wrong."

Watch the full ABC 7.30 program report.

Retirement Villagers pushed to the brink as fees go 'through the roof'

Meet the seniors who feel 'trapped' as fees at their retirement village go 'through the roof' -

Retirees face $200,000 loss following notice to vacate villas

Retirees face $200,000 loss following notice to vacate villas -

Retirement Village Village residents demand to know where their money has been going

A group of New South Wales retirees claim RSL LifeCare is seeking exorbitant fees from them for upkeep of their retirement village in Sydney's north-west and they want to know where their strata money has been going.

Retirement Village broken aircon has elderly couple facing bankruptcy

Two Australian pensioners claim they feared losing their home after being issued a bankruptcy notice just before Christmas, two years after losing a legal battle against their retirement village over an air conditioning unit.

Difference between retirement villages and lifestyle communities

 

Lifestyle Villages heavily criticised

Are Lifestyle Communities a Financial Prison

 

In a recent feature on the ABC 7.30 Report program claims were made that living in a Lifestyle Village was like a 'financial prison'.

Feature of the report -

'When retired policeman Geoff Gauci packed up his old life and moved to an over-50s gated community on Melbourne's northern fringe, he pictured his next chapter as peaceful.

After spending 36 years investigating shoplifters, drug trafficking, burglary, fraud and deception, it was time for the quiet life.

Seduced by promises of low maintenance and resort-style living at an affordable price, he bought into a Lifestyle Communities development at Wollert, impressed with its high-security cameras and boom gates that guarded a manufactured urban landscape of neat rows of uniform houses and perfectly manicured fake lawns.

It was a setting reminiscent of the Hollywood movie The Truman Show.

"The way it was presented to me and my wife, I expected everything to be above board, knowing that I'm dealing with Lifestyle, a publicly listed company," he says.

"I did my homework, and I checked on them. And I would have assumed that everything was kosher."

But 18 months later, earlier this year, he and two other residents, Thom Meads and Steve Doudle, found themselves investigating the utopia they thought they'd bought into.

"To me, it's like I'm in a financial prison," Gauci says.

"I've got to bail myself out in order to get out, and it's just wrong." '

See the full story here - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-15/lifestyle-communities-faces-challenge-over-land-lease-exit-fees/104091890