New Retirement Village Legislative Changes
There have been some recent legislative changes governing the operation of retirement villages.
The Retirement Villages (Records and Notices) Regulations 2015 take effect from 12 December 2015 and revoke the previous sets of regulations. The 2015 regulations are similar to those they replace however the major changes to be aware of include:
Amendments to the list of information that a retirement village operator must provide about the village to the Director of Consumer Affairs. This process is now more streamlined in that the operator must provide:
The name of the retirement village
The physical and postal addresses for the retirement village
Details of any order made under the Retirement Villages Act 1986 that applies to the village.
The requisite retirement village notice to be lodged on the title of the land from which the retirement village operates can now be signed by a licensed conveyancer for the owner as well as a lawyer or their agent.
Retirement village operators no longer need to advise the Director of Consumer Affairs about matters such as the occupancy rate of the village, the residence arrangements and the total number of residents residing at the village.
The 2015 regulations also set out the list of information to be covered in the disclosure statement and factsheet which a resident is required to receive before entering into a residence contract.
The previous regulations revoked by the 2015 regulations are:
The Retirement Villages (Records and Notices) Regulations 2005
The Retirement Vilages (Records and Notices) (Amendment) Regulations 2006
The Retirement Villages Amendment (Records and Notices) Regulations 2013.
If you are a retirement village operator who seeks to ensure your current disclosure statement and factsheets comply with the new regulations or if you are a prospective resident of a retirement village seeking to verify the information provided to you complies with the new regulations, please contact:
Stefan Manche
Associate
Harwood Andrews
T: 5226 8542
E: smanche@harwoodandrews.com.au
Sam Rowland
Lawyer
Harwood Andrews
T: 5226 8595
E: srowland@harwoodandrews.com.au