Scott Lynda: Retirement Villages Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Scott Lynda: Retirement Villages Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9415] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 We are all pleased to see the Retirement Villages Bill in the House today. This bill has been awaited by the Retirement Villages Association as well as those people who currently live in retirement villages. Retirement villages have developed over the past 10 to 15 years as an excellent lifestyle choice for many New Zealanders. They give security companionship and support and a very large percentage of those people who have entered retirement villages are very happy with the services they have received. However the legislation that covers retirement villages has not been clear and concise and there has not been a specific Act of Parliament that has covered that industry and the people who live within it. While 19 to 95 percent of retirement villages are run extremely well and deliver a very good lifestyle for those within them there are a few as is always the case that do not provide the same level of service and care. 
 The Law Commission work on retirement villages signalled the need for a bill and when I became a member of Parliament I had a member’s bill that went into the ballot promoting the need for retirement villages legislation. That member’s bill had not been pulled out of the ballot before the Government was pushed to develop its own bill. Later this week under urgency we will debate the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care) Bill which has sat on the Order Paper year after year without being debated and it is pleasing to see that there is a commitment to getting this bill through the House. 
The concern from the Retirement Villages Association of New Zealand residents has been about having legislation that makes it clear when someone enters a retirement village exactly what that person is buying into. As a geriatrician I work with many people who have entered rest homes continuing care units and retirement villages. In the South Island there tends to be a combination of that style of home in which the three types of facility are together. In the North Island however there tends to be much more emphasis on larger retirement villages. Some of them have rest homes and continuing care units in order to market all-of-life cover but many do not. There is quite a variation between the North Island and the South Island. 
One of the concerns is that sometimes when people buy into a retirement village neither they nor their lawyer have looked clearly through the fine print and they have not understood what the implications are if they wish to leave a retirement village. The disclosure documents make it very clear to people what they are buying into. There are two types of village: one in which people have a licence to occupy and another in which people have a unit title. The “licence to occupy” concept is that people are buying into a lifestyle—especially if they are living on their own—where they have a call button assistance if needed protection and security maintenance gardening and the companionship of those around them. 
A lot of people have not understood exactly what they have bought into when they move into a retirement village. Grey Power has been particularly active in talking about the concerns that it has in cases when an operator may not have met obligations or the need for disputes resolution within a home. Sometimes there is one resident who makes it very difficult for other residents and often the disputes are between residents as opposed to the operator of the home. The village in itself has to be protected for all of those within the village so that it is a viable entity and unit as opposed to functioning for the needs or wishes of one person. Setting up a disputes resolution process has been very important. 
In addition the statutory supervisors which all of those retirement village members who were part of the Retirement Villages Association had will now be compulsory. Statutory supervision will represent the good of the village overall as well as the needs of the individuals who live within those villages.