Those who can least afford it....
Is it just me or does everyone worry constantly about their retirement?
From time to time, at Mix FM Mark and I receive phone calls from older people in terrible distress over the amount of money they are paying to stay inside retirement villages. The general complaint seems to be, 'I don’t like it my situation, but I can’t get out of here because of how much I will have to pay out if I sell my unit…"
There is never anything Mark and I can do – other than direct people to the Office of Fair Trading to make a formal complaint.
Liberal MP, Member for Caloundra Mark McArdle has now called for an inquiry into the industry and is urging the government to introduce standardised fees.
The Sunshine Coast Daily today (www.thedaily.com.au) reports a multi million dollar victory for the residents of Caloundra Gardens Retirement Village who successfully argued that the management fees they are paying are illegal and that residents receive nothing in return.
The ruling will no doubt have ramifications for residents of retirement villages around the nation.
I know my own grandmother, in Perth, lived in a pretty ritzy retirement place. My uncle paid for the unit outright, every month my mum and dad paid very steep management fees, along with a big chunk of Gran’s pension to the corporate body. When Gran died, the entire capital gain on the unit went...you guessed it....to the developer.
I think it's a disgrace.
The residents of Caloundra Garden’s Retirement Village are lucky to have Jim Jorgensen, a retired barrister who fought for five years
From time to time, at Mix FM Mark and I receive phone calls from older people in terrible distress over the amount of money they are paying to stay inside retirement villages. The general complaint seems to be, 'I don’t like it my situation, but I can’t get out of here because of how much I will have to pay out if I sell my unit…"
There is never anything Mark and I can do – other than direct people to the Office of Fair Trading to make a formal complaint.
Liberal MP, Member for Caloundra Mark McArdle has now called for an inquiry into the industry and is urging the government to introduce standardised fees.
The Sunshine Coast Daily today (www.thedaily.com.au) reports a multi million dollar victory for the residents of Caloundra Gardens Retirement Village who successfully argued that the management fees they are paying are illegal and that residents receive nothing in return.
The ruling will no doubt have ramifications for residents of retirement villages around the nation.
I know my own grandmother, in Perth, lived in a pretty ritzy retirement place. My uncle paid for the unit outright, every month my mum and dad paid very steep management fees, along with a big chunk of Gran’s pension to the corporate body. When Gran died, the entire capital gain on the unit went...you guessed it....to the developer.
I think it's a disgrace.
The residents of Caloundra Garden’s Retirement Village are lucky to have Jim Jorgensen, a retired barrister who fought for five years
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