NSW’s motoring association, the NRMA, is attempting to expand its advocacy role to the over 50s market. It has launched a new website called Living Well Navigator. Amongst its first editorials was a 600 word warning on retirement villages, including the following:

Dian O'Sullivan feels swindled by a retirement village contract so thick and so filled with legal jargon that she never understood it. Even her solicitor had trouble understanding her contract after she was widowed.

What followed was a three-year battle with the village operator over money before it all became too much and she settled for much less than she had expected. "I just couldn't handle it anymore," she said.

And...

For Ian Day, CEO of the COTA NSW, there are other issues with retirement villages beyond contracts.

"Some people think they will get care at a retirement village but they don't deliver. If it does, it will come at a cost or from community organisations," he said.

Day is also concerned people don't think far enough ahead when looking at retirement villages, which are often built far from community facilities.

"What will happen when you can no longer drive? Will the facilities in the village continue to meet your needs into the future? There are people now living in villages looking over golf courses they continue to pay for but can no longer enjoy."