NSW Fair Trading Principal Inspector Lynn Evans and Senior Inspector Joel Elliott told of their work in retirement villages at the latest DCM Institute Lunch & Learn webinar series last Wednesday.

Joel said the unannounced visits would continue to ensure retirement village operators remain compliant and will follow up on complaints that fall within their jurisdiction.

During a 2022 audit campaign, over 100 retirement villages were inspected, resulting in 20 fines issued for non-compliance with asset management obligations.

"The asset management plan was in place, but not all the components had been completed," said Lynn. "In a lot of cases, it wasn't in place at all."

Inspections commonly assess how operators are meeting legislative obligations under the Retirement Villages Act. According to Fair Trading, frequent issues include:

• Missing or incomplete asset management plans,
• Poorly documented or entirely absent annual management meetings,
• Inadequate complaint registers or dispute handling procedures,
• Outdated or missing fire safety and evacuation plans,
• Lack of evidence that staff training is occurring or documented,
• Poor understanding of budget requirements, particularly around capital items, and 
• Evidence of unqualified or untrained staff responsible for compliance.

“You’d be surprised how many smaller operators in particular struggle with running compliant annual management meetings… [with] agenda items being completely missed,” Joel said.