13 months after the Property Council and Leading Age Services Australia (LASA)’s Retirement Living Code of Conduct came into effect on 1 January 2020, nearly half of all Australian residents are living in villages compliant with the Code. There were no breaches recorded among the seven complaints passed onto its Review Panel in 2020.
As we reported here, only 600 of the country’s 2,300 villages had signed up by the six-month mark – leading to the introduction of a new provisional registration for the voluntary Code to encourage the other 1,600 villages to sign up.
The Code’s first 12-page annual report shows that this number has risen to around 640 as of 15 December 2020 including 14 provisional registrations.
Ben Myers, the Property Council’s executive director of retirement living, says the biggest achievement of the Code over the last year however has been the “strong take-up by operators, despite the external pressures placed on the industry by COVID-19”.
“This year we will be increasing awareness of the Code to grow the number of subscribers. We have set an ambitious target of 75 per cent take up in the industry. This would seriously demonstrate the industry’s commitment to residents and to robust self-regulation.”
Few complaints referred onto Code’s Review Panel
Just seven complaints had been made to the Review Panel. The lack of awareness may have contributed.
The Review Panel comprises of Peter Nilsson, COO of the Village Glen Group; Rev Alistair Christie, President of the ACT and Australian Resident Associations; Jennifer Clancy, Director and Executive General Manager at village operator Tigcorp; Anthony Heald, RetireAustralia General Manager for People, Culture and Technology; and Judy Mayfield, President of the Association of Residents of Queensland Retirement Villages.
The report shows only four complaints were recorded in August followed by three in October.
“One of these involved legal questions which were the subject of an application to the Queensland Consumer and Administrative Tribunal and which therefore was not dealt with under the Code until those actions were determined. However, the Code Administrator was able to investigate simultaneously a breach complaint regarding the same village’s complaint handling processes,” it states.
Overall, the Review Panel recorded no breaches among the seven complaints.
However, its inaugural chair of the Review Panel, Dr Elizabeth Lanyon, says: “the panel expects a greater number of complaints in 2021 as the Code’s existence is more widely promoted among residents”.
You can expect higher take-up of the Code across the sector will also increase the number of complaints.
