Victorian Bills Explanatory Memoranda Victorian Bills Explanatory Memoranda[Index] [Search] [Download] [Bill] [Help]
Retirement Villages Amendment
(Information Disclosure) Bill 2012
Introduction Print
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
General
The Bill amends the Retirement Villages Act 1986 to require a retirement
village owner or manager to provide a prescribed factsheet and inspection of
prescribed documents to retired persons inquiring about living in their village
and to include the factsheet in any village marketing material sent or given to
a retired person.
The Bill amends section 19 of the Retirement Villages Act 1986 to require
retirement village owner or manager to provide the factsheet and document-
inspection to prospective residents considering signing a residence contract
or management contract unless they have previously been provided with a
factsheet or document-inspection and the information has not materially
changed.
The Bill amends section 20 of the Retirement Villages Act 1986 to make it
an offence knowingly to include a false or misleading statement in a factsheet
or prescribed document and amends section 43 to permit the making of
regulations to prescribe the information to be contained in the factsheet and
the documents to be made available for inspection.
The Bill amends the definition of disclosure statement in section 3 of the
Retirement Villages Act 1986 to provide for the form of the statement to be
as approved by the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria and amends
section 26 to make a technical correction to the provisions regulating refunds
of ingoing contributions.
571250 1 BILL LA INTRODUCTION 23/10/2012
Clause Notes
PART 1--PRELIMINARY
Clause 1 sets out the purpose of the Bill, which is to amend the
Retirement Villages Act 1986 to require the owner or manager
of a retirement village to provide a summary of information
relating to the retirement village and to make certain documents
available for inspection to prospective residents of retirement
villages.
Clause 2 provides for the commencement of the Bill, which is on a day or
days to be proclaimed, with a default commencement date of
1 March 2014.
Clause 3 amends the definition of disclosure statement in section 3 of the
Retirement Villages Act 1986 so that the form of the statement
is as approved by the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria; and
inserts a definition of factsheet into section 3, being a summary
of information relating to a retirement village prepared in
accordance with new section 18A(5) of the Retirement Villages
Act 1986.
Clause 4 inserts new sections 18A and 18B into the Retirement Villages
Act 1986.
New section 18A provides that if a retired person or person
acting on their behalf makes a request, orally or in writing, to the
owner or manager of a retirement village for a factsheet, the
owner or manager must comply with that request, free of charge,
no later than 7 days afterward, unless it has previously been
provided and the information has not materially changed since
then.
Contravention of this provision is an offence and a penalty of
120 penalty units applies.
A factsheet must also be included in any material promoting a
village and given to a retired person or person acting on their
behalf unless it has previously been provided and the information
has not materially changed since then.
Contravention of this provision is an offence and a penalty of
50 penalty units applies.
2
The factsheet must be in the form approved by the Director of
Consumer Affairs Victoria and contain the prescribed
information, which must be presented in a clear, concise and
effective manner.
New section 18B provides that if a retired person or person acting
on their behalf makes a request, orally or in writing, to the owner
or manager of a retirement village to inspect prescribed
documents relating to the retirement village in the owner's or
manager's possession or control, the owner or manager must
comply with that request, free of charge no later than 7 days
afterward, unless inspection has previously been provided and the
information has not materially changed since then.
Contravention of this provision is an offence and a penalty of
120 penalty units applies.
Clause 5 inserts new paragraph (ca) and new sub-section (3) into
section 19(2) of the Retirement Villages Act 1986 to require the
manager of a retirement village to provide a copy of the factsheet
to a person at least 21 days before they enter into a management
contract unless it has previously been provided and the
information has not materially changed since then.
New subsection (4) requires the manager to allow inspection of
the prescribed documents at least 21 days before a person enters
into a management contract unless inspection has previously
been provided and the information has not materially changed
since then.
Contravention of this provision is an offence and a penalty of
200 penalty units applies.
Clause 6 amends section 20 of the Retirement Villages Act 1986.
Section 20(1) currently provides that it is an offence to include in
a disclosure statement a statement which the person knows to be
false or misleading in a material particular. The penalty applying
to the offence is 50 penalty units. The amendment expands the
offence to include statements included in a factsheet or a
document that is prescribed under new section 18B as a
document which a retired person may request to inspect.
Clause 7 amends section 26(2)(b)(i) of the Retirement Villages Act
1986.
Section 26(2) provides that if a residence contract contains a
condition which must be fulfilled before a non-owner resident's
departure entitlement is refunded, it is deemed to be void subject
to certain exceptions. Currently, one of those exceptions is if the
condition entitles the resident to recover the amount only if,
3
among other things, payment is made by another person that is
the equivalent of the amount owed to the resident.
The requirement that the payment be the equivalent of the
amount owed is too restrictive and clause 7 amends section
26(2)(b)(i) to provide that the payment be at least the equivalent
of the amount owed to the resident.
Clause 8 inserts new paragraphs (ca) and (cb) into section 43(1) of the
Retirement Villages Act 1986 to enable regulations to be made
prescribing the information that must be included in the factsheet
and the documents that must be made available for inspection.
Clause 9 provides for the repeal of the Bill on 1 March 2015.
Under section 15(1) of the Interpretation of Legislation Act
1984, the repeal of the Bill does not affect the continuing
operation of the amendments made by it.
4