News

Consumer Action, with COTA Victoria, Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria (RRVV) and Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG), is a coalition of residents and consumer rights groups that have assisted and represented retirement housing residents over many years.

We have long campaigned for a comprehensive review of the Retirement Villages Act 1986(Vic) (the Act), which we consider to be outdated and ineffective in protecting and promoting the interests of residents. The current review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul the regulatory framework for retirement villages in Victoria. We have the chance to future-proof this legislation and lead the nation in terms of retirement village regulation, which will enhance resident confidence in the sector.

We see the Options Paper as a non-definitive list of ways we can improve retirement village regulation in Victoria. We have set out below our shared vision and recommendations for the review. Our organisations may also make individual submissions with further suggestions and comments based on the experience and expertise of each organisation.

In our submission, we argue that the following is needed to improve outcomes for residents including the following:

• Implementing a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework that clearly sets out the rights and obligations of owners, managers, and residents, rather than relying on individual contracts.
• Establishing a licensing scheme and public register for retirement villages.
• Delineating the relationship between residential aged care, home-based aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
• Ensuring retirement villages remain a community for older people by prohibiting operators from transitioning a village into other forms of accommodation, for example, rental units for people under 55 years old.

A fully summary of recommendations is available at Appendix A.

Please read our submission (PDF) here.