Retirement Village Horror Stories Continue

The ABC reports - For almost a decade, pensioners Trish Reece and her husband Wayne have been living in a gated village in Shepparton in regional Victoria, run by the controversial land lease operator Lifestyle Communities.

Now they want to get out.

"We don't want to live here anymore," she says.

But she says they are stuck, financially, due to the so-called exit fees charged by the company when a resident sells their home.

For the full story click the link below -
Retirement Village Horror Stories Continue

Retirement village shuts down, leaving residents homeless

Retirement village shuts down, leaving residents homeless -

Unfair contracts on Retirement Villages

Australians being unfairly impacted financially because of unfair contracts on Retirement Villages.

Retirees face $200,000 loss following notice to vacate retirement villas

Retirees face $200,000 loss following notice to vacate retirement villas -

Difference between retirement villages and lifestyle communities

What is the difference between retirement villages and lifestyle communities?

Lifestyle Villages Financial Prisons

 

Claims Lifestyle Communities are Financial Prison

In a recent feature on the ABC 7.30 Report program claims were made that living in a Lifestyle Village was like a 'financial prison'.

Feature of the report -

'When retired policeman Geoff Gauci packed up his old life and moved to an over-50s gated community on Melbourne's northern fringe, he pictured his next chapter as peaceful.

After spending 36 years investigating shoplifters, drug trafficking, burglary, fraud and deception, it was time for the quiet life.

Seduced by promises of low maintenance and resort-style living at an affordable price, he bought into a Lifestyle Communities development at Wollert, impressed with its high-security cameras and boom gates that guarded a manufactured urban landscape of neat rows of uniform houses and perfectly manicured fake lawns.

It was a setting reminiscent of the Hollywood movie The Truman Show.

"The way it was presented to me and my wife, I expected everything to be above board, knowing that I'm dealing with Lifestyle, a publicly listed company," he says.

"I did my homework, and I checked on them. And I would have assumed that everything was kosher."

But 18 months later, earlier this year, he and two other residents, Thom Meads and Steve Doudle, found themselves investigating the utopia they thought they'd bought into.

"To me, it's like I'm in a financial prison," Gauci says.

"I've got to bail myself out in order to get out, and it's just wrong." '

See the full story here - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-15/lifestyle-communities-faces-challenge-over-land-lease-exit-fees/104091890