Residents Must Speak Out

"Retirement village residents should speak out because change must come and only by speaking out will anyone with the capacity to bring about that change take notice"

Retirement Village Residents must continue to speak out on the issues they are facing whilst living in retirement villages. For a variety of reasons they can be suffering financially, socially and even emotionally at the hands of the so called 'retirement village system'.

A system that empowers operators over residents, places justice at the end of a very long road, places roadblocks on the road that deter vulnerable retirees from completing or even starting that journey.

A system that despite creating laws and regulations in the interest of fair play does not demand legislators and regulators ensure laws and regulations are adhered to and that retirees obtain the protections available to them under these laws.

One retirement village resident recently wrote:-

"There are powerful commercial forces pushing against residents, the industry will fight hard to defend this in-going payment ‘deferred management fee’ business model. A business model which creates an excessive reduction in capital wealth for retirees over their period of occupancy whilst transferring this capital wealth to operators. (see chart below) Over my 10 years in a retirement village I have seen, experienced, or been the victim of the paper tiger approach of Consumer Affairs Victoria.  Suffered the intimidation of an operator over multiple issues I have raised on behalf of myself and/or other residents. Won a case in VCAT that forced the operator to refund $300,000.00 to the residents for charging a fee over a 10+ year period that was deemed contrary to the provisions of the Act. The residents committee where I live has just carried a motion of ‘no confidence’ in the recording of the minutes of the Residents Annual General Meeting after multiple years of problems with the minutes. This of course is simply life in a retirement village for some, not everyone, but certainly for some. Unfortunately the deferred management fee model moves us all closer to a position where we cannot make a U-turn because of the fee, loss of earnings on the refundable amount, the impact of inflation on the ‘present day value’ of the refundable amount, exit fees etc.

Yes, retirement village residents should speak out because change must come and only by speaking out will anyone with the capacity to bring about that change take notice."






[blog_subscription_form]