Residents to talk about retirement village law changes

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Retirement village residents and their families will have a chance to learn more about proposed changes to how retirement villages are governed.

Retirement Village Residents Association president Brian Peat will be speaking on the subject at two public meetings here next week.

He will speak at Beetham Lifestyle Village at 2pm on Tuesday and  at Waikanae Surf Lifesaving  Club at 2pm on Thursday.

A current focus for the association is the urgent review of the Retirement Villages Act 2003 and the Retirement Villages Code of Practice 2008 now being undertaken by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in order to improve the legislation and practices that govern retirement villages in today’s environment.

The Ministry is now seeking responses by November  20 to a 132-page discussion document before a proposal is put to Cabinet to amend the Act, then a Bill drafted and introduced to Parliament before it is referred to a Select Committee for consideration.

At that point, the public, village residents, village operators, and sector organisations who have already contributed to the inquiry initiated by the Retirement Commissioner — NZ Law Society, Grey Power, Consumer NZ,  NZ Aged Care,  Presbyterian Support Services and others — will have another opportunity to comment on proposed law changes.