NSW Retirement Villages exit entitlements 

NSW retirement members were briefed on 11 February by departmental officials on the new and upcoming requirements of the exit entitlements changes. 

The key changes are to:

• Place a 42-day limit on the length of time villages can charge for general services after a resident leaves a retirement village. 
• Allow current and future residents to apply for an order requiring the operator to pay their exit entitlement after a prescribed timeframe of 6-months for metropolitan areas and 12-months for all other villages. 
• Create a financial mechanism to support residents moving to aged care, by requiring operators to pay up to 85% of the fixed component (excludes capital gain) of the exit entitlement to an aged care facility as the resident’s accommodation payment, made daily. 

These reforms affect:

• The reforms directly affect existing and prospective retirement village residents who are registered interest holders and are owed an exit entitlement under the terms of the village contract.
• However, provisions will only apply to registered interest holders whose village contract is in the form of a long-term registered lease, which entitles them to at least % of any capital gain.
• The reforms do not apply to beneficiaries of residents, in cases where the resident passes away.

You can access a presentation here that goes into greater detail about the changes under the new exit entitlement provisions. It should be noted that Lake Macquarie is listed in the metropolitan region list, this is a mistake.