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Ombudsman for retirees?

Amelia
In Victoria a number of advocacy groups are campaigning for a special Ombudsman to administer complaints against the retirement housing sector, including residential parks. The Consumer Law Action Centre (Victoria) has reported older people routinely calling for advice about unfair fees, complex contracts, bullying and intimidation. Sound familiar? Some of these issues are what we regularly hear about from park residents.
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RLC submission to the Review of the Residential Tenancies Act

Redfern Legal Centre's logo - a stylised building graphic
It has been five years since the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 came into force and it is now due for its five year statutory review. In October 2015, NSW Fair Trading released a discussion paper and Redfern Legal Centre provided input to the review that focused on the following main areas (as well as comments on other areas).
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Merry Christmas

Parks team
Paul, Jemima and Julie from the parks team at the Tenants' Union of NSW wish you - our Outasite Lite readers - a very Merry Christmas and Happy New year. We enjoyed sharing residential parks news with you in 2015 and hearing back from you about the stories and updates we send through. Thank you for the positive feedback you kindly send us.
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New laws for park residents

Paul and Len
On 1 November 2015 the laws governing the relationship between park owners and park residents changed. In fact, parks are not even called parks any more - the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 renames them “residential communities”. So, what does this mean for residents of these communities? Find out in the first Issue of Outasite!
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What is a special levy?

Outasite article
Under the new Act if home owners want a new facility or an improvement to the community and the operator refuses to fund it, the home owners can vote to pay for it. This is a special levy.
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Understanding the ins and outs of utility charges

Outasite article
In the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 electricity, gas, water and sewerage service are dealt with under the generic term ‘utility’.
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New rules for operators

Outasite article
During the review of the Residential Parks Act 1998 one of the key issues raised by residents was the conduct of operators. Many stories were told about interference with the sale of homes, harassment and intimidation by operators. The Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 contains a number of new provisions in relation to operator behaviour, including new rules of conduct.
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New rules in communities

Gnome
Community rules (previously called park rules) are about the use, enjoyment, control and management of a community. Unlike the Residential Parks Act 1998, the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 does not set specific subject matter for rules so they can be about anything that fits into these general themes.
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Never give up! The campaign to keep assignment

Christina
When the draft Residential (Land Lease) Communities Bill was first released in April 2013 one of the big concerns residents and advocates had was that under the new Act residents would lose the right to assign their site agreements. The draft Bill seemed to favour operators, providing weaker assignment provisions than those available in the Residential Parks Act 1998.
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It's gold! The value of your site agreement

Keep calm
One of the most concerning changes in the new Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 is the introduction of ‘voluntary sharing arrangements’. Under the voluntary sharing arrangement provisions an operator can offer new site agreements that include entry and exit fees and entitle the operator to a share in the sale price, or in any future capital gain on a home when it is sold.
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