Submission: Proposed re-make of Retirement Villages legislation
The Consumer Action Law Centre, COTA Victoria and Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria have made a joint submission to the Consumer Affairs Victoria review on the effectiveness of the Retirement Villages (Records and Notices) Regulations 2005 and Estate Agent (Retirement Villages) Regulations 2006.
The submission:
- outlines the importance of housing to older Victorians, and the barriers to older people making complaints;
- recommends that the Victorian Government and Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) consider more comprehensive reforms to provide that all retirement accommodation provided consistent protections for residents, and argues that a broad review of the retirement housing legislation is necessary;
- recommends improvements to the procedures for dealing with management complaints and resident disputes;
- argues that data in notices to the Director be made public, and additional data fields included;
- recommends rearranging the content of the fact sheet and disclosure document to ensure information relating to costs is more prominent;
- recommends tougher enforcement action by CAV to ensure that businesses are complying with disclosure requirements; and
- recommends that estate agents be prohibited from charging commissions for selling a property if the sale is not completed.
A full copy of our submission is available by clicking here: Proposed re-make of Retirement Village Regulations
