New checklist devised for people considering moving to retirement villages

Friday, 24 March 2017

There is a lot to take in when you consider moving to a retirement village, the Retirement Villages Association says.

The Retirement Villages Association has issued a checklist to help people considering moving into a retirement home.

The new, standardised template is designed to make it easier for people to compare villages, and to avoid paperwork overload.

It covers things such as the fees charged, whether residents have any exposure to the property's capital gains or losses, what happens when you leave the unit, transferring within the village and care options available.

Villages that are members of the association are distributing the checklist to potential tenants as part of a voluntary trial.

'Currently the key terms are buried in legal documents which makes it very difficult for intending residents to compare different operators' offerings effectively,' said John Collyns, executive director of the association.

'If you go to three or four villages on a Saturday and each gives you a disclosure statement and all the other documents, you will come away with a ream of paper and it is very different to work out what it is and what you might do. This is intended to make it easier than what the current law requires.'

He said it was a new experience for most people considering a retirement village.

'Deciding about a retirement village is not like the conventional real estate transaction that most people are accustomed to. It's very important people have clear information that allows them to make a decision between operators that is fully informed,' Collyns said.

Troy Churton, national manager of retirement villages at the Commission for Financial Capability, welcomed the move. He said everyone who moved into a retirement village had to take legal advice, under law. But it was sometimes a difficult time.

'The retirement village regime is very disclosure-oriented so I don't think it's about being caught out,' he said.

'More often it's the circumstances some older people are in having to make a big decision about their future accommodation. I'd say some folks simply don't digest all the key terms or underestimate some of the ways that things might change while they are living in the village.

'The disclosure statement will set out what the condition of the village is and whether any more development is planned for. But lots of residents are very stressed when an operator consults them about a proposal to build more units on the village land.'

Churton said his organisation had started developing resources to help people understand the future cost of their care.

'It is good to think about how your equity might get used to pay for any needs-assessed care you might need, and do that as part of your wider retirement planning.'

The effectiveness of the scheme will be reviewed in June. 'If we find it works we hope to try to make it part of the auditing process.'