Residents not sold on reports
BY SARAH O'CONNOR
04 Apr, 2011 Greater Dandenong Weekly - Your Community Voice

RESIDENTS at Willow Lodge in Bangholme are unhappy with new rules that force them to pay thousands of dollars for safety reports before they can sell their homes.

Willow Lodge comprises about 400 relocatable homes and comes under the Caravan Park Act. Residents own their homes, but not the land they're on.

Residents committee president Eunice Walters said the changes meant residents - many elderly and on the pension - faced paying out thousands of dollars to obtain the necessary reports before they could sell.

These included fire safety certificates and electrical, plumbing and structural reports from engineers, she said.

However, the lodge's manager, Arthur Horsburgh, said the new requirements were in line with fire clearance legislation that applied to all caravan parks across the state.

He said they were introduced to ensure the homes were safe for their next occupant.

"We've got a duty of care to new residents," Mr Horsburgh said. "All we're trying to bring up to scratch is the way they're connected to the water and to the sewer. It's the same as if you own a house and you sell it."

Ms Walters said Willow Lodge residents already paid $230 a fortnight in management fees - as well as deferred management fees of up to 20 per cent of the home's value upon sale - but that was not being used to properly maintain the lodge.

It was unfair residents were required to pay even more money before they could leave, she said.

Dandenong real estate agent Chris Drieberg has sold 10-15 homes in Willow Lodge, one of which was meant to settled last week. But because of these new rules, the deal's on hold.

"They're not allowing the vendor to sell because they say all those things need to be done," he said.

"[The owner] is going ahead and spending 2000-odd dollars to get the gas connection fitted.

They brought this property less than two years ago from Willow Lodge management."

Ms Walters said some residents felt trapped by the new rules - if they couldn't afford the reports, they could not leave.

But Mr Horsburgh said that was not the case. "We can't prevent them from leaving," he said.

The residents committee and management of Willow Lodge have been meeting to discuss the changes.

Mr Horsburgh said a letter providing further details of the changes would soon be circulated to residents.

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