Finance

Items dealing with budgets and recurrent charges

March CPI (All Groups) Sydney rises 2.4% in last 12 months

Over the last twelve months to March quarter 2017, the Consumer Price Index (All Groups) for Sydney as published by the Australian Statistician has risen by 2.4%.

Residents should be aware of this as operators of Villages will be considering this when completing the DRAFT budgets for your approval.

At this stage of the year, at least the first DRAFT of the budget should be in the hands of residents or the Residents Committee.

WANT TO CHANGE YOUR AUDITOR?

Residents and resident committees may seek to appoint an independent auditor of the village. This decision may arise if you are not satisfied with the current village auditor for reasons including non-compliance with requirements of the Retirement Village Act or familiarity and independence concerns with the operator. You may appoint an independent auditor who is more conversant with the legislation and the requirements of the village. The RVRA has prepared a protocol to be followed to facilitate change.

AppointingIndependentAuditorsFeb2017.pdf

Water rebates for pensioner residents of eligible retirement villages in the Hunter

The following was recently advised by Belinda Jones, Group Manager Billing and Collections – Hunter Water Corporation. (Updated 11 Feb. 2017)

Hunter Water has recently approved pensioner rebates for concession holders in retirement villages which will be backdated to 1 July 2016. The eligibility criteria requires that the retirement village is registered with the Department of Fair Trading with each resident having lifetime leasehold registered with the NSW Land and Property Information. The eligible retirement villages are also those that are billed based on the multiple occupancy charging method (similar to flats and units per dwelling). Hunter Water will be notifying eligible retirement villages of the changes over the coming months including details on the information that will need to be collated to verify the eligibility of residents so that the rebates can be processed. This decision recognises the growth in retirement living in the Hunter and the associated costs to residents.
Click to view recent (Feb. 2017)   “Concession Rebates for Retirement Villages – FAQS“

Central Coast Water Fees

NSW Council waives water fees in win for retirement village residents

3,500 village residents are celebrating after Central Coast Council announced it would waive over 50% of their water service charges for 2016/17.

The residents had been fighting the former Gosford Council over big increases in their water, sewerage and drainage charges in 2015/16 – in some cases reportedly up to 1000 per cent – after being under-billed for the previous three years.

However, the newly formed Council has now voted to foot the bill for 53% of the water service charges this FY – an average of $142 each.

The same waiver had already been granted to villages in the former Wyong Shire, which was also amalgamated into the Central Coast Council.

Administrator Ian Reynolds said Council was working towards a fairer pricing structure and will ensure the charges “remain aligned” for the following year.

Credit: Express Advocate.