In this video, OMB Solicitor Calum Ball shares insight about purchasing into a retirement village and the required process to get in.
Transcript
Hi, my name’s Calum Ball, I’m a solicitor here at OMB Solicitors, and today, I just want to have a quick chat with you about purchasing into retirement villages and the process that is basically required to get in.
So, purchasing in retirement villages is different to general property purchases, I suppose, in that it’s generally done via way of what’s called a lifetime lease.
It’ll be a 99-year lease, and the village operators are required to give you a number of documents which disclose a whole lot of information regarding the village you’ll be buying into and basically how that will operate throughout your time there.
It’s critical that you have some advice around these documents and we point out all of the key information outlined, all the ongoing fees you’ll be paying, obviously what benefits you get from the villages and also any facilitation of a sale in order to make that payment of your ongoing contribution moving forward.
As well as that, there’s a number of small issues that can arise throughout this process, and we understand that obviously, there’ll be a sale of a family or a life home to facilitate the purchase into a retirement village.
It’s important that we can assist you in guaranteeing that the transition and the sale of the property and the purchase of the retirement village run smoothly and can go on contemporaneously at the same time moving forward.
The bundle of documents that are a retirement village will give you can be quite overwhelming. There’s often three key documents being a prospective cost document, a village comparison document, and the contract itself, which is either a lease or in some instances, a licence.
So, there is a lot of information in these, but the way that we assist you here is we break it all down and point out all the key information and obviously anything that might be untoward or that you need to be aware of.
Without this, you could end up in a situation of not necessarily being aware of what your obligations are, particularly on the outgoing end of the retirement village, where either when you pass away or decide to leave the retirement village.
There are often payments that need to be paid or a reduction in the amount that you’re paid or your estate is paid from the sale of that retirement village to the next ongoing resident.
Here at OMB, we’ve got plenty of experience and deal with these on a weekly basis. So, if you’re unsure, you’re looking to buy into a retirement village, feel free to reach out and we’ll be more than happy to help.