Consumer Protection is offering some reassurances for residents of two WA retirement villages affected by the Settlers group of companies being placed into receivership.
Administrators and receivers have been appointed to the company which operates a total of 463 units at Settlers Lakeside village in Ravenswood near Mandurah and Settlers Ridgewood Rise near Butler, as well as two villages in Queensland and one in New South Wales.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection David Hillyard said there are numerous protections in place under laws that regulate the retirement village industry in WA.
"Any new buyer of the business would have to honour the contracts and leases that are currently in place and there is a memorial on the land which would prevent it being used for any other purpose than a retirement village," Mr Hillyard said.
"This should give some comfort to the residents of the affected villages knowing that there are laws that offer protection in these circumstances.
"We recently visited the two villages for a proactive compliance check in July 2019 and found a high occupancy rate which should indicate that the villages in WA would be attractive propositions to any potential buyers.
"I'm sure the administrators will be working hard to secure a sale of the properties and, in the meantime, they have announced it is business as usual for the residents and they should not be too concerned at this stage.
"We will be liaising with the residents' committees at both retirement villages and the administrators have also committed to keep them up to date with any developments."
Damien Hodgkinson of DEM Asia Group has been appointed voluntary administrator and Joseph Hansell, Ian Frances and John Park of FTI Consulting have been appointed receivers and managers to Settlers Company and the associated Settlers Property Trust, Settlers Operations, Forum Settlers and the associated Forum Settlers Trust.
