news
RV laws scrutinised
Dr Andrea Blake and Dr Lucy Cradduck. Photo: QUT
Governments to overhaul
regulatory framework for
retirement villages.
By Dallas Bastian
T
here needs to be more
transparency and simplicity in the
retirement village sector.
This was the crux of senior law lecturer
Dr Lucy Cradduck’s verbal submission to
the 2007 Standing Committee on Legal
and Constitutional Affairs’ inquiry into
older people and the law. Ten years on, not
much has changed.
Speaking to Aged Care Insite recently,
Cradduck said that currently a standard
Queensland retirement village public
information document (PID) might reach
at least 70 pages, which is more akin to a
commercial lease.
“It is intimidating,” she said. “I think the
one thing that shines through is there
needs to be greater levels of transparency
and simplicity. The documents themselves
need to be easier to engage with. They
need to be shorter and reflect the fact
you’re living in your own home.”
There also needs to be a mechanism
for easy comparison between retirement
village operators and documents without
the need for the consumer to contact them
to send through information, she added.
“Some villages do have some fees and
percentages available, but you cannot
easily find which document you would
need to enter int