Update – Changes to the Retirement Villages Act receive royal assent

The Housing Legislation (Building Better Futures) Amendment Bill 2017 (the Bill), passed by the Queensland Parliament on 25 October 2017, received royal assent on 10 November 2017. While some of the changes to the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (Q) (RV Act) commenced on that date, the majority will not commence until a date yet to be fixed by proclamation.

In our previous two articles (Your guide to the major changes proposed to the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (Q) and Retirement Villages Act changes passed by Parliament), we summarised the proposed changes to the RV Act under the Bill, both as originally introduced and as passed by the Parliament.

The Bill has now received royal assent and has therefore become law. However, in relation to the RV Act, only two sets of provisions commenced operation on 10 November 2017, being:

• provisions relating to the mandatory 18 month buy-back period (whereby operators must pay former residents their exit entitlements no later than 18 months after termination of the residence contract, even if the right to reside has not been resold); and
• new Part 8 of the RV Act, imposing new behavioural obligations on operators and residents.

In relation to the mandatory 18 month buy-back period, this means that:

• for any residence contracts that are terminated from 10 November 2017 onwards, the relevant 18 month period commences on the termination date (regardless of whether the residence contract was entered into before, on or after 10 November 2017); and
• for residence contracts that were terminated before 10 November 2017, the relevant 18 month period commences on 10 November 2017 (and therefore expires on 10 May 2019).

The remaining provisions of the Bill affecting the RV Act will not commence until a date to be fixed by proclamation in the future.

If you wish to discuss this article or any other retirement village issues in more detail, please contact Stuart Lowe.