New South Wales Retirement Villages Act: New Standard Contracts and Disclosure Documents

The NSW Government has introduced a number of important changes to the regulation of retirement villages in NSW, in the Retirement Villages Amendment (Standard Contract) Regulation 2013 (2013 No 158). The changes, effective 1 October 2013, include the development of a standard contract for retirement villages. There are also some new requirements about what documents operators must provide before prospective residents sign a contract. The aim of these new requirements is to make it easier for a prospective resident to compare the costs and conditions between villages before signing a contract. The 2013 amending Regulation modifies the Retirement Villages Regulation 2009 to include three compulsory documents:

• Standard retirement village contract (a new document)
• General inquiry document that an operator must provide within 14 days after becoming aware that a person is a prospective resident, or acting on behalf of a prospective resident (a new document)
• Disclosure statement that an operator must provide to a prospective resident, or person acting on behalf of a prospective resident, within 14 days after that person requests a copy or expresses an interest in particular premises in the village (replaces the previous prescribed form of disclosure statement)

What do you need to do?

To help operators transition to the new requirements, NSW Fair Trading has developed template contracts for the five most common village types. These can be downloaded free-of-charge from the NSW Fair Trading website, where the new retirement village contract and disclosure documents are also available. Operators may adapt the contract for their village with a logo and any additional terms. The additional terms can be added so long as they do not conflict with the requirements of the retirement village laws or any other laws.