Sporting accident forces couple from Retirement Village
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A heavy fall during a game of tennis has resulted in an elderly couple being forced to leave the retirement village where they had hoped to spend their twilight years together. In addition the couple stand to lose more than $15,000 that they have invested in their retirement home.
When Kate crashed to the ground on the village tennis courts fracturing her right hip, the couple quickly found themselves living a nightmare. Kate had until then been John's registered carer. His life, after being left with lumbar stenosis following two spinal operations, varied from "good" days when he can drive a car and walk with the aid of a stick to "bad" when he can not get out of bed without Kate's help.
While Kate was rushed to hospital for a complete hip replacement John was left alone to do his own cooking, house keeping and laundry. Five days after surgery and barely able to move from bed to toilet or bathroom, Kate was sent home to reduce the risk of becoming ill during a developing influenza pandemic.
When John contacted the village welfare officer and asked for help he was just given two telephone numbers of agencies who "might be able to help". John struggled to nurse his partner and take care of the home but their clean and attractive unit rapidly deteriorated into a dirty "junk heap".
Filthy, blood stained bed sheets remained unchanged on the beds and damp, stinking clothes and towels accumulated in the bathroom and laundry. Five long weeks after Kate had been discharged from hospital one of the agencies finally sent assistance.
The village senior administration officer visited John's unit to inspect $1,200 worth of improvements which he had paid for while Kate was in hospital but the officer offered no support other than to advise him to "contact the welfare officer".
Now Kate and John need a part time live in carer, which is strictly prohibited at the retirement village. So they have no choice but to leave the village. Even then the nightmare doesn't end with the new residents who have been selected to move into unit not willing to buy window treatments, carpets and other items already installed in the unit.
So John and Kate will have to pay for over $6,000 worth of furnishings, fittings, improvements and equipment to be stripped from the unit and thrown into the rubbish bin. Bad luck or bad management they are wondering? "We were asked to pay $280,000 as an interest free loan to the administration to move into a village that promoted community and life style" Kate said. "What we discovered was very different".
"There is a culture of bullying and intimidation obviously supported by the village hierarchy. It is clear that the senior administrative staff is not trained to Retirement Village Association standards and makes no effort to interact or build community within the village environment. Complaints from residents are frequently ignored and rules and regulations are either completely disregarded or misinterpreted to suit the administrators".
"The final insult for us is that we will have to pay in the order of another $10,000 in order to break our lease. This means that we will have paid over $500.00 per week for rent over fifteen months. We could have lived in a retirement village and got three meals a day and our washing and cleaning done for that" Kate concluded.
Vast sums of money are clearly being generated by the millions of dollars which residents have provided to the not for profit organisation via these interest free loans. Tens of thousands more are being generated from residents being charged "penalty interest" and "departure fees". Both these income streams are effectively cost free to the administration.
It may be past time that the Auditor Generals Office is encouraged to take a hard look at this multi million dollar operation. There seems little doubt that over a thousand retiree's living in Royal Australian Air Force Association retirement accommodation are not getting value for money or investing their retirement funds were they can get most benefit.
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