Retirement Villages
The Boroughs
Life in a retirement village can be quite an adventure. This is certainly true for those living at The Boroughs in the beautiful surrounds of the New Mexico dessert. ‘The Boroughs’ becomes home for a reluctant Sam (Alfred Molina), still grieving from the death of his wife. At first, Sam is not wanting to join in with… …
Posted in: Reviews, Movie Reviews
The Thursday Murder Club
The Thursday Murder Club was a hotly contested ‘secret Santa’ gift at HAAG’s end of year party, and it was easy to see why. The Thursday Murder Club is ‘cosy crime’ at its best, set in Cooper’s Chase, an upmarket retirement village in England. The Thursday Murder Club is a group of residents – Elizabeth,… …
Posted in: Reviews, Book Reviews
Overcoming bullies in Retirement Villages
Mary* is a HAAG member living in a retirement village in the west of Melbourne. She’s lived there since 2018, and enjoyed a couple of good years there before a new manager named Dean* started there in late 2019. Mary soon noticed tensions developing between her and Dean, but within a year these had erupted… …
Posted in: Client Stories, Retirement Housing, Retirement Housing Advice Service
24 months in a leaky house!
Sally is a woman in her 70’s living in a retirement village in Victoria’s North. Sally contacted HAAG’s Retirement Housing Advice Service (RHAS) in late 2021 after 18 months of attempting to resolve an issue with her leaking roof by herself. Sally originally reported to management her roof was leaking in 2020 after she noticed… …
Posted in: Client Stories, Retirement Housing, Retirement Housing Advice Service
"A Dog of an Act"
Shane and Fiona talk to Lawrie Robertson, Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria, about the good and the bad of living in Retirement Villages, the issues with current laws, and what residents would like to see under a new Act.RRVV can be contacted via their website www.rrvv.org.au where you can join to become a member, receive information… …
Posted in: Podcasts, Retirement Housing, Campaigns
Queen Bees
Set in a US retirement home, Queen Bees is Michael Lembeck’s latest Hollywood production. Helen, a fiercely independent older woman, unwillingly moves into a retirement village while her house undergoes repairs. Here she discovers a clique known as the “queen bees” – just like the popular kids in high school, they are mean and don’t… …
Posted in: Reviews, Movie Reviews
Infested with Pests
Jennie was referred to our Retirement Housing Advice Service, as she had had huge crowds of ants crawling into her unit for almost 12 months and the village where she lived had consistently been unresponsive to this pest infestation. When she came to RHAS, Jennie was highly stressed and was unable to settle into her… …
Posted in: Client Stories, Retirement Housing, Retirement Housing Advice Service
Amma Hófí
Amma Hófí (Grandma Hofi) is an Icelandic Christmas heist movie directed by Gunnar B. Gudmundsson that screened at the Scandinavian Film Festival. Hofi (Edda Björgvinsdóttir) and Petur (Þórhallur Sigurðsson) are residents in an underfunded retirement village come aged care facility, where they are forced to share a room due to lack of space. They live… …
Posted in: Reviews, Movie Reviews
Some kind of heaven
Attending a cinema screening of the wonderful, Oscar winning ‘Nomadland’ which I reviewed in our last newsletter, I was incredibly excited to see a trailer for ANOTHER MOVIE ABOUT OLDER PEOPLE AND HOUSING. There aren’t a great deal of movies on the topic, let alone those that make it to our big screens. It felt… …
Posted in: Reviews, Movie Reviews
It Takes A (Retirement) Village
With the Vic government continuing its review of the Retirement Villages Act, Fiona and Shane talk to Katherine Temple from the Consumer Action Law Centre about retirement villages – what are the problems in the industry, and what needs to change? …
Posted in: Podcasts, Retirement Housing
Courts out on COVID evictions
Sarah (not her real name) is in her early 60s and resides in a small retirement village. Sarah fell into arrears and received a notice terminating (or purporting to terminate) her residency right as of last week. When she had not vacated the property by the date set out on the notice, the village had… …
Posted in: Client Stories, Coronavirus, Retirement Housing, Retirement Housing Advice Service