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Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria (RRVV), Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) and COTA Victoria (COTA Vic) have made a joint submission in response to the Draft Retirement Living Code of Conduct (the Code).

The need to address widespread problems in the retirement housing industry is long overdue. We welcome industry efforts to better protect and promote the rights and interests of older Australians who choose to live in retirement housing. We also generally support the aim of the Code, which is to ‘improve accreditation standards and coverage, and to set and maintain high standards about the marketing, selling and operation of Retirement Communities’. However, we do not consider that the Code distributed by the Retirement Living Council (RLC) would achieve these aims or properly address resident concerns without significant amendments.

Overall, the Code has a disproportionate focus on promoting industry interests and fails to address the harm caused by bad practices in the retirement industry. Much of the Code reads as a public relations exercise without genuine regard given to how resident outcomes might be improved or measured. Importantly, it fails to address key resident concerns.

Read the full submission here [PDF].