Retirement Housing

These resources will help you if you are searching for retirement housing or independent living units.

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"On 8 June 2017, 24 representatives from resident advocacy groups, universities, industry, ombudsman schemes, government agencies and regulators met in Melbourne at an Experts’ Forum to discuss the future of retirement housing regulation in Victoria. We were also joined by academics and advocates from interstate jurisdictions.

The Experts’ Forum followed the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the retirement housing sector, which released its final report on 7 March 2017. The Inquiry received 766 submissions and heard from 90 witnesses. The vast majority of evidence was received from residents.

The message to the Inquiry was clear: residents expect change. While many residents generally enjoy life in their choice of retirement housing, many are also frustrated by a system they see as geared in favour of operators. Some feel that instead of prioritising residents, operators are more concerned about satisfying shareholders.

Residents gave evidence to the Inquiry about what they see as unjustifiable exit fees, complex contracts and poor dispute resolution."

See the full report here

HAAGs response to the options paper around internal dispute resolution processes under the Retirement Villages Act.

Download submission

Download options paper

Four corners ran a fantastic episode last night on dodgy retirement housing opporator AVEO, and other articles have recently been published that expose many of the problems residents of retirement housing have been facing for a long time – complicated contracts, unfair fees and issues with management. Unfortunately, these are not isolated problems with one operator, they occur across the whole of the retirement housing industry, and we must continnue to push for reform.

Download Full Press Release