Recorded Webinar: Independent Living Arrangements: Looking After Your Elderly Client (NSW)

Following an extensive review which was prompted by allegations of misconduct, the laws governing retirement villages/independent living in New South Wales have undergone some recent significant changes to give residents greater protection. Practitioners acting for clients either buying into or leaving such developments need to be across these changes as well as other relevant issues which may affect the rights of their clients, including:

• Am I on the title? An overview of the different models: ownership/strata, licence and leasehold
• Disclosure obligations
• Cooling off rights and settling in periods
• Rights and obligations of residents under the contract
• Assessing the fees: ingoing and on departure, recurrent – what do they cover and when are they paid?
• Making improvements and alterations – consent and conditions
• Implications of moving out/termination or dying, and ongoing obligations
• Does the resident share in any capital gains when they leave?
• Termination by the operator where the village is sold or to be developed or
• What if the operator goes bust?
• Recent reforms under the Retirement Villages Amendment Act 2018 – contract “check-up” meetings, rules of conduct, greater cost transparency and improvements to dispute resolution.