Financial statements of retirement villages
By law, residents can access certain financial information about the village.
As the operator, you must prepare draft budgets outlining the costs of operating, repairing, maintaining and replacing village facilities before the financial year starts.
You must also obtain a full or updated quantity surveyors report each year that provides recommendations about the expected maintenance, repair and capital replacement costs for the village for the next 10 years. Consider these recommendations when preparing the village budgets.
A resident or residents' committee can write to you requesting a copy of a draft budget or an independent quantity surveyors written report. They must give this to you at least 28 days before the start of a financial year.
You must provide the requested documents at least 14 days before the start of the financial year.
If the cost of a general service expense increases more than expected for a financial year, a residents' committee can ask you for the reason.
Quarterly financial statements
A resident can ask you for a quarterly financial statement for either:
- 1 or more completed quarters of the current financial year
- 1 or more quarters of the previous 2 completed financial years.
You must provide these statements within 28 days of their request.
The quarterly financial statement must show the income and expenditure for the:
- capital replacement fund
- maintenance reserve fund
- general services charges fund.
These financial statements can be either audited or in a form that can be audited. A financial document such as a quarterly financial statement:
- must be in the approved form, if one exists
- include prescribed information
- be prepared in line with standards or principles prescribed for the document by regulation.
The recently amended Retirement Villages Regulation 2018 prescribes information that you must include in these statements. Due to transitional provisions, the changes will apply only to the quarterly financial statements for the 2025–26 financial year onwards.
Annual financial statements
Residents can also request an annual financial statement. On request, you must provide a financial statement about the retirement village's operation within 5 months after the end of each financial year.
You need to prepare an annual financial statement each financial year. The statement must be in the approved form, if one exists, and contain the:
- income and expenditure of the capital replacement fund for the financial year
- income and expenditure of the maintenance reserve fund for the financial year
- income and expenditure of the general services charges fund for the financial year
- an amounts received from insurance claims relating to the village for the financial year
- assets and liabilities of the retirement village as at the end of the financial year
- any interest, mortgages and other charges affecting the village's property as at the end of the financial year.
This statement must be audited and an audit report prepared according to the Australian Auditing Standards. Section 113 of the Retirement Villages Act 1999 outlines who can audit this report.
The recently amended Retirement Villages Regulation 2018 outlines information that must be included in future statements. Due to transitional provisions, the changes will apply only to annual financial statements for the 2025–26 financial year onwards. A financial guideline to assist with these changes will be introduced soon.
Every year, you must call a residents meeting to present and discuss the financial statements and audit report as soon as the documents are available.
Operational documents
A resident or prospective resident can write to a scheme operator requesting a copy of an operational document. They must use the Request a copy of an operational document form.
The Retirement Villages Regulation 2018 outlines which operational documents residents can request, including:
- certificate of registration for the retirement village scheme
- certificate of title or current title search for the retirement village land
- village site plan
- plans showing the location, floor plan or dimensions of accommodation units in the village
- plans of any units or facilities under construction
- development or planning approvals for any further development of the village
- an approved redevelopment plan for the village under the Retirement Villages Act
- an approved transition plan for the village
- an approved closure plan for the village
- the annual financial statements and report presented to the previous annual meeting of the retirement village
- statements of the balance of the capital replacement fund, maintenance reserve fund or general services charges fund (or income and expenditure for general services) at the end of the previous 3 financial years of the village
- a capital replacement quantity surveyor report that relates to the most recent capital
- statements of the balance of any body corporate administrative fund or sinking fund at the end of the previous 3 years of the village
- examples of contracts that residents may have to enter into
- village dispute resolution process
- village by-laws
- village insurance policies and certificates of currency
- a current public information document (PID) continued in effect under section 237I of the Act (for existing residence contracts).
Changes to the amended regulation for operational documents now include:
- a quantity surveyor report relating to the most recent adopted village budgets and any updated quantity surveyor since the full report
- insurance policies paid from the general services charges fund, not relating to insurance policies required under section 110 of the Retirement Villages Act.
In their request, the resident must state their name and whether they're a resident or prospective resident. You have at least 7 days after you receive the request to supply the documents.
You can't charge a retirement village resident or prospective resident a fee for preparing or providing a copy of:
- a village comparison document
- a prospective costs document
- a condition report
- an operational document other than your copy of either a completed residence contract for an existing resident or public information document for an existing resident.
You must comply with a request for document access unless, within the previous 30 days:
- you have complied with another request by the same person to inspect or copy the same document
- and
- the document hasn't materially changed since then.
You can't give a resident personal information about another person.