Retirement Village Residents Association-News Break

Retirement Village Residents Association (Inc)
ABN 16 674 035 894

~ News Break ~

The RVRA has produced a 'Discussion Paper' which comments on the
Retirement Village Industry in NSW
to view or downlload the paper please follow this link:
Discussion Paper pdf file.

For information about the new
Retirement Villages Regulation
see below

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Friday, 18th December 2009:

RETIREMENT VILLAGES REGULATION 2009
The Regulation pertaining to the Retirement Villages Act 1999 has now been published.

To view and print a copy of the Regulation please follow this link:

Regulation for RV Act 1999 pdf file.

           The pdf file requires Adobe Reader, available at: www.adobe.com

The RVRA representatives have been closely involved in discussion with the Minister's Office and The Office of Fair Trading regarding the Regulation to accompany the Retirement Village Amendment Bill 2008.

RVRA was acknowledged as one of the "main stakeholders" and its views were submitted to the Minister's Office and to the Office of Fair trading along with 700 other submissions from RVRA members and other residents. The representatives of the RVRA were also involved in joint meetings with the operator groups, the Retirement Village Association and Aged Care Services.

The views expressed in this document are being made following only a short period of time to study the final Regulation.

RVRA feels our views have been considered in the following main areas:

Clause 20 Limit on Contingencies
We are pleased that Clause 20 has been amended to be a figure of $100, and accept that to achieve this some specific items are allowed as part of a deficit that an operator can carry onto the following year.

Clause 26, Matters Not To Be Financed By Recurrent Charges
This section has made the situation clearer for residents in studying their village budgets.
     - The payroll tax provisions in Clause 26 are an improvement for residents who have not yet approved pay roll tax costs in their village.
     - Some "head office" costs and operator's travel costs are not allowed.
     - Marketing costs of vacant units are not able to be charged to recurrent charges.

Capital Maintenance
We welcome the removal of the percentage formulas as shown in the Draft Regulation in regards to Capital Maintenance.

However, RVRA has concerns in many areas of the Regulation:
Such concerns are listed below:

There are some sections still difficult to understand, and the problem as to who pays for what, will continue to remain a matter for CTTT hearings.

Capital Maintenance:
The draft was changed and now both internal and external painting seems to be 'maintenance' and therefore at residents' cost. This is inequitable. The residents in a lease village do not own the dwellings or the common areas of the village. RVRA do not feel progress has been made in achieving equity in this area of maintenance.

Clause 26, Matters Not To Be Financed By Recurrent Charges
We hope there will be no confusion in the interpretation of the section d (ii) (If residents have consented to the financing of payroll tax for the 2009-2010 year, but have not formally, or otherwise, consented to the continuance of that financing in future budgets.)
Also, where the operator has multiple villages, we trust it does not mean that an operator can then divide their total payroll tax liability amongst a reduced number of villages because of their previous agreement, and hence, a village may pay a greater share of the operator's liability than has been paid in the current year.

Further, regarding Management Charges, the definition in the Draft Regulation has been watered down, and more particularly the section "charges directly related to the administration of the village" has been removed. We believe this removal will lead to disputes and applications to the tribunal resulting in a great deal of stress to residents.

Section 18 Form of proposed annual budget
In Section 18 (2) on Page 13 / 14 RVRA submitted that this clause should read "An operator of a retirement village "MUST" use the model form of proposed annual budget". This is based on the expectation that the Operators must use The Model Schedule 4 to give Residents a better understanding of Line Items in the Budget, and we are concerned that this is not now the case in the final Regulation.

The Future
The RVRA are planning Education Seminars to explain the new legislation to their members and believes this education process is vital.

If we are to continue to fight for the recognition of our resident's rights to live with certainty and fairness in Retirement Villages, we need to be vigilant and bring to the notice of The Office of Fair Trading any situations where residents are treated unjustly.

All of the above points will need to be monitored carefully in the near future, and if necessary some further changes may need to be made to the Regulation, if it can be shown that residents are suffering an unfair and inequitable situation.

The Office of Fair Trading have information regarding the amended Act and Regulation at this link.