Craig Bennett, Retirement Villages Residents Association NSW President (pictured left), said the first Asset Management Plan (AMP) by operators will create “a lot of confusion”.
“The Asset Management Plan is going to be a lot of detail and going to cause a lot of confusion. It will be interesting,” said Craig.
As The Weekly Source reported last Tuesday, operators are dismayed by NSW Government’s AMP. An asset management plan documents the costs of purchase, and ongoing maintenance, repairs and replacement of a retirement village’s major items of capital, including shared major items of capital.
The three-year capital maintenance report has to be made available to residents and prospective residents.
Craig welcomed the changes to the Retirement Villages Regulation 2017 following the Kathryn Greiner enquiry.
“The changes have created a fairer playing field between operators and residents. It provides more protection for residents and makes the operators more accountable,” he said.
“There still needs more to be done but we have a more solid understanding of what goes on in the villages and an understanding of the problems the operators face.”
Paul Burkett, CEO and Director of Baldwin Care Group (pictured right), said the new regulatory environment in NSW was “challenging” and was “pitching operators and residents against each other.”
“In general, residents and operators have worked well together. The new regulations in NSW are creating more difficulties,” said Paul.
The plan must include the following content:
- an asset register of the village’s major items of capital, including information about the effective life of items of capital and
- a maintenance schedule of the village’s major items of capital, including information about capital replacement,
- and operators must also prepare a three-year report for capital maintenance extracted from the asset management plan to inform expenditure for the annual budget.
