Publications

The draft of proposed amendments to the Retirement Villages Act bill fails to address many concerns raised by and on behalf of residents, in particular around management standards and fairer fees. The bill allows the most exploitative and predatory operators to continue to operate according to ‘churn’ business models where they are incentivised to maintain high turnover rates by systematically pressuring residents to leave once their exit fees reach their maximum value. The bill abandons the concept of a rights-based framework in favour of vague unenforceable ‘principles’. Overall, the bill simply fails to address serious public concerns about exploitative business practices in the retirement village industry, much less the concerns expressed by the many residents who have made submissions to this review.

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Across sectors, much of the legislation and policies that are meant to monitor or regulate the services provided to older people living in retirement housing options do not offer clear or adequate protections or enforcements. Given this, HAAG is in support of the Panel’s vision to provide consumers of Embedded (electricity) Networks equal protections, market access and treatment to on-market customers.

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The options set out in this paper show a serious lack of understanding of the issues raised by residents and other stakeholder about retirement village residencies. Retirement villages are too often unfair and exploitative. The Options Paper proceeds as if the problems were only that residents mistakenly perceived villages to be unfair and exploitative, or as if more information would resolve resident concerns. This is not the case. Again and again, the options paper proposes more information rather than increased protections for residents. This is a persistent failure of the options paper, and if the government proceeds on this basis the reform process will fail current and future retirement village residents.

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Our clients who live in retirement housing options and receive their energy via an embedded network report concerns with exempt sellers over-charging them for their usage. Our clients often experience a digital divide in accessing adequate information, and commonly express a fear of speaking out and asserting their rights due to fear of negative consequences from management.

This feedback was provided to the Essential Service Commission’s (ESC) Maximum prices for embedded networks and other exempt sellers Draft Decision.

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Older renters are a key demographic when it comes to rental reform. People over 55 make up the fastest growing segment of the private rental market, a major and growing proportion of social housing tenants, and a key cohort for caravan and residential parks. The government has recognised the needs of older renters as a key concern of the RTA review from the Laying the Groundwork paper onwards. Existing transitional provisions specify certain rental reforms – such as minimum standards – that will only apply to new fixed term or periodic agreements entered into after July 2020. We are concerned this will tend to disproportionately disadvantage older renters.

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Housing for the Aged Action Group submission in response to the Regulatory Impact Statement for the proposed Residential Tenancies Regulations 2020

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This joint submission with Consumer Action Law Center focuses on five key areas that have emerged as central to retirement village reform in our casework and in feedback from our members: resident rights, contractual complexity, unfair fees, management standards, and dispute resolution. The case study illustrates the ways these issues are connected and compound each other to the detriment of retirement village residents.

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This submission is based on the experiences of our members and clients living in retirement housing, who have embedded networks in their villages.

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This written submission is provided by Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria (RRVV), Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) and COTA Victoria (COTA Vic). The need to address widespread problems in the retirement housing industry is long overdue. We welcome industry efforts to better protect and promote the rights and interests of older Australians who choose to live in retirement housing. We also generally support the
aim of the Draft Retirement Living Code of Conduct (the Code), which is to ‘improve accreditation standards and coverage, and to set and maintain high standards about the marketing, selling and operation of Retirement Communities’. However, we do not consider that the Code distributed by the Retirement Living Council (RLC) would achieve these aims or properly address resident concerns without significant amendments....

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Consumer Action (CALC), RRVV, HAAG and COTA Vic have provided feedback about the proposed amendments to retirement villages fact sheets.
The group do not oppose the proposed amendments to the fact sheets, but are concerned that this is not a good enough tool for protecting residents from entering into unfair contracts...

View the submission here

Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), COTA Victoria and Housing for the Aged Action Group have made a joint submission in relation to the remake of the Estate Agents (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2008 (the Regulations).
View the submission here

 

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

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September 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Alternate forms of tenure’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

HAAG would like to acknowledge that the submission was compiled with contribution from our members, specifically the Independent Living Unit (ILU) working group and the Caravan and Residential Parks and Villages (CARPAV) working group, and this forms the foundation of our response...

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August 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Regulation of property conditions’’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

HAAG would like to acknowledge that the submission was compiled with contribution from our members and that this forms the foundation of our response.

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July 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Dispute resolution’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).
HAAG would like to acknowledge that the submission was compiled with contribution from our members and that this forms the foundation of our response

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May 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Rights and Responsibilities of Landlords and Tenants’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

HAAG would like to acknowledge that the submission was compiled with contribution from our members and that this forms the foundation of our response.

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June 2016

The Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), Council on the Ageing Victoria (COTA), Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG), Justice Connect (Seniors Law) (Justice Connect) and Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria (RRVV), welcome the opportunity tocontribute to the parliamentary inquiry into the retirement housing sector. 

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June 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the inquiry into the retirement housing sector. 

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April 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Rents, bonds and other charges’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

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March 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the Access to Justice review, which includes six background papers and related terms of reference.

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