The much awaited amendments to the WA Retirement Villages Act has now passed Parliament.

The Tribunal will now be able to make orders to appoint a manager where they find a retirement village is being seriously mismanaged. It also makes provision to prohibit people regarded as unsuitable for operating or managing a retirement village.

The major focus of the changes was to prevent a repeat of the Karrinyup Lakes Lifestyle Village debacle where the operator ignored all directions of the Tribunal across a range of matters [before he went into liquidation].

The Tribunal can also order operators to complete promised works and on any other contractual obligations. The Commerce Minister Simon O’Brien (pictured) has also formalized the limit on the time (six months) that recurrent charges must be paid by non owner residents after they leave the village. Longer cooling-off periods have been introduced as well.