It is a voluntary role, but the retired lawyer put ABC Canberra broadcaster Saskia Mabin in her box in a 17-minute interview the morning after ABC 7.30's first salvo on retirement villages 'Retirement Rip Off'.
Anne told Sabra while the 7.30 investigation was concerning, "One of the things I was surprised about was this situation that the fees came as a bit of a shock to them. Retirement villages are highly regulated by legislation but also anybody entering into a retirement village does so under a contract and those arrangements about fees, incoming and exit fees, would have been spelt out in those contracts. Either the person involved or the family would have had access to that contract," Anne said.
"I must say, as a lawyer, I was taken aback by the contract I was presented with and I had to go off and get legal advice. Everyone should get legal and financial advice."
Anne added the ACT RVRA is working with the ACT Government to look at retirement living and simplifying the contracts as part of that discussion.
A resident at Keyton's The Aerie in Narrabundah also corrected ABC 7.30's persistent argument that moving into retirement living was a financial investment.
"Moving into a retirement village is not like buying a house. You are buying into a community where the operators are providing a range of services, which are very complex, broad-ranging and sometimes luxurious. Operators have to pay for them and there are fees we pay ingoing, during and going out. These are businesses which make a profit and if they don't there would not be any retirement villages," Anne said.
"The residents we deal with are overwhelmingly very happy with their lives in the retirement villages. The bigger operators are very professional, very supportive of their residents. At the COTA ACT Seniors and Better Ageing Expo there was a lot of interest about moving into a retirement village. It's very hard to get in.
"People do want to move into this supportive environment. They are very beautiful places to live."
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