Resources

COVID-19

New Zealand is currently at Level 1. The documents below detail restrictions to keep retirement village residents safe at Levels 2 and 3.

• Download retirement village guidelines

  Level 2 retirement village guidelines (84KB PDF)

  Level 3 retirement village guidelines (122KB PDF)

Download resources

• Information sheets

  Click to download PDF resources:

  • Liquor Licensing in Retirement Villages
    
    
  • Flow Chart: What Happens if a Retirement Village or Unit is Damaged or Destroyed?
    
    
  • Flow Chart: Pathways to Care for Retirement Village Residents

• Checklists

  Download these checklists to use when visiting retirement villages:

  • Lifestyle Checklist

  • Financial Checklist

  • Signing Up Checklist

  If a village offers care facilities in the event that your circumstances change, see our Pathways to Care information sheet. Ask the operator about the costs of care should you need more care in the future.

• Checklist for lawyers

  From time to time, the New Zealand Law Society produces a checklist for lawyers advising intending residents.

  See Lawyers Education for more information. 

• Dispute templates and forms

  Dispute forms

  The schedule to the Retirement Villages (Disputes Panel) Regulations 2006 on the New Zealand Legislation website provides the following forms for use during the dispute process:

  • Dispute notice

  • Reply to dispute notice

  • Request to witness to attend hearing of disputes panel

  • Notice of refusal to hear or to continue to hear a dispute

  • Reference of dispute under Retirement Villages Act 2003 to District Court

  • Notice requiring operator to appoint new disputes panel

  • Decision of disputes panel

  • Application to disputes panel

  Complaint reporting 

  Click here to access complaint reporting for retirement village operators

• RVRANZ Residents Committee Handbook

  Download the RVRANZ Residents Committee Handbook

Comparing costs and other contractual terms

• Summary of key terms

  To help people understand the main financial terms of the disclosure statement and occupation right agreement, the Retirement Village Association's member-operators have trialled the use of a 'key terms' disclosure summary during 2017. 

  The summary sets out some important terms intending residents should be asking an operator about when considering a retirement village, and when consulting with a lawyer.

  Download an example of the 'key terms' summary template here.

  The content of each term will differ from village to village.

  Intending residents inspecting different retirement villages might collect each member-village's summary document to compare financial terms before deciding which village may be right for them or not.

  Note: Not every village may be using a key terms summary as part of the disclosure documents provided to intending residents.

  The Commission has recommended that use of the key terms summary be a mandatory requirement for membership of the Retirement Villages Association. 

• Comparing costs and conditions

  You can also compare entry ages, conditions, indicative costs, and fees of retirement villages on this tool provided by the Aged Advisor website. The figures used in the tool are indicative only and the Aged Advisor website asks users not to use it as a primary basis for making decisions.

Care and assistance

• The financial implications for aged care in retirement villages

  There are additional cost implications if you or your spouse need home support services, or are needs-assessed for residential care while you are living in a retirement village.

  We are in the process of creating short videos explaining some of the implications, including real experiences from residents and their children and will upload them here.

  See our 'Care pathways for retirement village residents' flowchart explaining different types of care costs for different types of accommodation. It includes tips and links to further sources of information. 

  For further information about the cost of care we recommend you call:

  • Seniorline, a DHB-provided service - 0800 725 463 or visit: www.seniorline.org.nz

  • Work and Income Residential Subsidy Unit - 0800 999 727