Troy Churton, former Commission for Financial Capability retirement villages national manager shares tips on factors to consider. Video / NZ Herald
Residents in a 17-unit retirement village must pay $9900 for taking what turned out to be an unsuccessful complaint against their village owner-operator, a sector advocate says.
Nigel Matthews, Retirement Village Residents Association chief executive, described their plight after the Retirement Commission published a dispute panel decisionin the case TW and others v W Ltd
Not only were they charged that amount but they were also told there was a “sense of entitlement or prejudice given the differences in race and gender”.
All identifying details of people and the village were suppressed.
Matthews said the bill was due to be paid on December 5.
Charging them was especially punitive for older people whose only income was mainly superannuation, he said.
“I’m extremely disappointed at the apparent lack of fairness the residents got from the decision in this matter.
“In particular, the fact that the residents are now being asked to pay to cover fees incurred in the complaints process is rubbing salt into the wound.
“Normally, a hearing would only award partial costs but in this situation, full costs were sought from the residents for bringing the complaint,” Matthews said.
Dr Susan Robson who heard the dispute said because the residents lost the case, the owner-operator was entitled to recompense. She had incurred costs so the residents had to pay, Robson’s decision indicated.
Residents were charged $5427.79 for the adjudicator, $1380 for a statutory supervisor and $3120 for the owner’s representative.
The fight was over weekly fees and sprang from a disagreement over rates charges but the residents’ objection to how these were calculated in their weekly fees was dismissed.
Nigel Matthews of the Retirement Village Residents Association - one of many who wants the Government to updated outdated law which severely disadvantages residents.
One resident said fees were $203/week last year but went to $230/week, then there was a discount for lower insurance costs which meant they fell to $226/week.
The owner-operator cited an increase in superannuation payments when challenged about fee rises, that resident said.
Robson’s decision said TW’s case was futile and that he should have hired a lawyer. The man told the Herald he did not wish to discuss it.
Robson’s decision also said there had been a sense of entitlement and prejudice based on gender and race from the complainants.
“They were critical and dismissive of the village’s systems and the operator herself during the hearing in ways that some might think arose from a sense of entitlement or prejudice given the differences in race and gender of the parties,” Robson wrote
TW needed legal advice.
“The lead claimant resident was advised to seek legal advice about his concerns. Had he done so the futility of this claim would have been made clear and the risk of incurring liability for the operator’s costs explained.
“The operator is entitled to claim recompense in full for any costs incurred and may apply for an order once those costs are clear,” she said.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with Retirement Village Association president Graham Wilkinson. Photo / Alex Burton
Graham Wilkinson, Retirement Village Association president, said the situation at the village had been unfortunate.
“We never want to see this sort of thing.”
Yet very few complaints were published on the Retirement Commission website, he said.
In fact, the 17-unit village dispute is only the second this year to be posted there.
“If you reflect on the volume of serious or disputed complaints, it is a tiny fraction compared with the size of the industry,” he said.
Consultants JLL found more than 53,000 people were living in New Zealand retirement villages in 2023.
Gavin Read, Auckland-based head of research, released the annual retirement village study which found that, by the end of 2023, New Zealand had 41,111 village units in 470 villages.
About 1.3 people live in each unit, so around 53,444 people lived in those villages by the end of last year, the study found.
In 2022, New Zealand had 38,918 people in 452 villages, JLL said last August.
By the end of 2020, JLL estimated 47,249 people lived in villages, up on 45,000 a year previously and 40,000 in 2019.
Most older people do not live in such villages.
Even with a village population of 53,000 people last year, that is only 13% of the estimated 383,000 New Zealanders aged 75-plus, although the study didn’t say that.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
