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Peter Carr, president of the Retirement Villages Residents Association of New Zealand, says residents want to level the playing field with retirement village owners.
Retirement village residents have put pen to paper and fingers to keyboards in their hundreds to back a major revamp of the law governing retirement villages. A key bugbear up for debate are residents, or their families or estate, not sharing in the capital gain on units when the residents pass away or go into care. Most village owners keep the capital gain when the unit is resold. President of the Retirement Villages Residents Association, Peter Carr, said 98.5 per cent of the 2000 responses to their survey of members supported a major review of the Retirement Villages Act 2003.
Association minister of housing Poto Williams.
Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas
The bodies which represent the residents and the providers respectively disagree over whether the law - as it stands - is fair.
Retirement Village Residents Association national president Peter Carr said the contracts absolutely needed to be reworked.
But Retirement Villages Association chief executive John Collyns disagreed with that. There are some aspects of the law which we think could be addressed, but by and large, we think the law is fair, Collyns said. It balances operators responsibilities with residents rights. Second class citizen at 94
Rose s 94-year-old aunt has lived in a retirement home in the Waikato for six years.
Photo: 123RF
Consumer NZ has reviewed the contracts offered by six major companies including Bupa, Ryman Healthcare and Summerset.
Chief executive Jon Duffy said retirement villages promised the good life in your golden years, but the review showed the agreements people must sign unfairly favoured the village.
Duffy said a major concern were contract terms that made residents responsible for the costs of electrical or plumbing repairs even though they had no ownership rights to their unit.
Many also faced significant financial losses when their unit was sold because they did not get any capital gains, despite paying towards the property s upkeep.
Retirement village regulations need overhaul: Consumer NZ
1 Feb, 2021 06:15 PM
5 minutes to read
Consumer NZ wants an overhaul of the multi-billion dollar retirement village sector and its regulations to protect around 45,000 residents from unfair terms.
Jon Duffy, chief executive at Consumer NZ, said a review of contracts found terms which unfairly favoured villages and risked costing residents money. Retirement villages promise the good life in your golden years. However, the agreements consumers must sign before they move into a village can have a nasty financial sting. Some also risk breaching consumer law, Duffy said.
Terms which made residents responsible for the costs of maintaining and repairing items in their unit - even though they didn t own them - were one worry.