RESIDENTS of retirement villages in Queensland are still waiting for the recommendations of a review of state legislation, four years after loopholes came under scrutiny.
The delay is, in part, due to the retirement village review being rolled into a broader examination of affordable housing, including options for the homeless.
A 10-year housing strategy was due to be released last December.
Housing Minister Mick de Brenni told The Senior reforms around retirement villages would be “a key early focus” of that strategy, now expected within weeks.
The ongoing delay has exasperated the Association of Residents of Queensland Retirement Villages, which has agitated for reform to the Retirement Villages Act 1999 on the grounds of consumer protection and fair trading.
It has called for plain-English contracts, clarification of anomalies and clauses it says are open to interpretation, and a controversial retrospective mechanism, recently incorporated in South Australian legislation, that would force retirement
village operators to buy back residents’ homes within a fixed period.
“Some scheme operators will hold onto (residents’ ingoing) contributions for up to five years after a resident has gone into care,” the association’s president Judy Mayfield said.
“That’s seen residents or their families take out bridging loans to fund care bonds, creating a lot of stress and frequently severe financial hardship.
“We want to see that payment made within months, not years, and we want any such change to be retrospective.”
Minister de Brenni said the housing strategy would set the right policies and laws in place for seniors’ living choices.
“I understand that retirement village living doesn’t always work out as well as people hope, and the regulations around retirement villages can be confusing,” he said.
“It can be difficult to know what your rights are, or whether you’re being treated fairly and in accordance with the law.
“The government is committed to making sure that there are clear, understandable and transparent rules governing the (retirement village) sector.”
Expansion was news to Arch
When Arch Morrison signed up to buy into Buderim Gardens Retirement Village 16 years ago, he was sold on the lake and parkland vista his low-set Sunshine Coast villa overlooked.
At the time of his purchase, Mr Morrison understood the village was “fully developed”.
Several variations on the public information document later, Mr Morrison and 14 other residents face losing their views to development.
BuderimGardens, owned and operated by Lend Lease, has 385 independent living units and 15 serviced apartments. A further 24 residential units appear in a masterplan along with a relocated community centre.
Mr Morrison, 78, feels hog-tied: he wants the village atmosphere he chose to live in retained, does not want to be looking onto another unit and can’t afford to move elsewhere.
“Queensland’s retirement villages’ legislation affords no consumer protection,” he said.
“Fair trading, in my opinion, does not exist when two parties enter into a signed contract yet one party can change the contract details without agreement of the other. This is not what I agreed to.”
Lend Lease’s managing director of retirement living Michael Eggington was contacted for comment.