Enhanced protections and clearer responsibilities will better support retirees
There are many systemic issues exist with retirement housing that adversely affect retirees’ wellbeing in their golden years. These include housing providers using threats of eviction to discourage residents from exercising their rights, a lack of information provided to residents about the financial arrangements underpinning their residencies, unfair fees, no access to dispute resolution when things go wrong and contracts that are too complex to understand.
The current purpose of the Act is “to clarify and protect the rights of persons who live in, or wish to live in, retirement villages”, but in many respects it is difficult to see how the Act gives effect to this purpose.
In our joint response with Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to ‘Review of the Retirement Villages Act 1986’ Issues Paper, we demonstrate a need for the review to focus on five key areas that have emerged as central to retirement village reform in our casework and in feedback from our members: resident rights, contractual complexity, unfair fees, management standards, and dispute resolution.
You can read the full submission here [PDF].
