retirement.org.nz

The Retirement Villages Act 2003 includes several important statutory roles:

• the Registrar of Retirement Villages
• the Retirement Commissioner
• the Registrar-General of Lands
• the Department of Building and Housing
• the Minister for Building and Construction.

Registrar of Retirement Villages

The role of the Registrar of Retirement Villages is performed by the Registrar of Companies in the Companies Office, which is part of the Ministry of Economic Development. The Registrar of Retirement Villages is responsible for:

• registering retirement villages and receiving annual returns
• maintaining the Register of Retirement Villages in electronic or manual form, or both
• approving people who can be appointed as statutory supervisors by retirement village operators
• notifying the Registrar-General of Lands when a retirement village is registered, so that a 'memorial' can be placed on the certificates of title for the village
• determining whether villages are complying with the Retirement Villages Act and the Financial Reporting Act 1993
• receiving complaints about breaches of the Code of Residents' Rights.

The Registrar can:

• suspend a retirement village's registration
• exempt a village from the requirement to appoint a statutory supervisor
• exempt a village from any provision in the Code of Practice
• inspect, take copies of, and retain documents relating to a retirement village.

Retirement Commissioner

The Retirement Commissioner is responsible for:

• monitoring the effects of the Retirement Villages Act, the regulations and the Code of Practice
• advising the responsible Minister on retirement village issues
• collecting and publishing information on the Commissioner's functions that relate to retirement villages
• receiving alleged breaches of the Code of Residents' Rights
• approving people who can be appointed by operators as members of disputes panels, and holding the full records of disputes
• seeking submissions and making recommendations to the responsible Minister on a draft Code of Practice and on any changes to an approved Code of Practice.

The Retirement Commissioner can also obtain information from operators and auditors of retirement villages.

Registrar-General of Lands

The Registrar-General of Lands is responsible for noting a memorial on the certificates of title for retirement villages. The memorial records that the title is subject to the rights of the residents. In certain cases the Registrar-General can also remove memorials.

Department of Building and Housing

The Retirement Villages Act is administered by the Department of Building and Housing.

The Minister for Building and Construction

The Minister for Building and Construction approves the Code of Practice to cover all retirement villages and is responsible for making any changes to it.