Minter Ellison's popular report on the fundamentals of doing business in Australia.
Minter Ellison is one of the few Australian law firms to have a dedicated national retirement village and aged care practice. We have acted for the industry for more than 25 years, managing the acquisition and disposal of retirement villages and facilities in every State of Australia. During this time we have also provided a comprehensive range of legal services including structuring/start-ups, scheme document drafting, ongoing management of villages and regulatory compliance. Our experience comes from advising many of Australia's major retirement village and aged care developers and through having also acted for large Australian banks in relation to funding in this sector. Our team understands the sector, its needs, relevant government policy and legislative requirements. We provide proactive and prompt assistance to industry participants on a variety of compliance issues including specialised consideration of the relevant legislation.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has recently issued a draft public ruling GSTR 2012/D2 (Draft Ruling) in relation to the GST treatment of retirement village exit fees. The Draft Ruling will affect both charitable and commercial operators of loan-lease retirement villages.
On 29 November 2011 the Queensland Government enacted the Civil Proceedings Act 2011 (Qld). Included in the Act are important amendments to the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (Qld) in relation to the calculation of exit fees for Queensland retirement villages. A new section 53A ('How to work out particular exit fee for a residence contract') has been inserted into the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (Qld). This section applies to all residence contracts that require the resident to pay to the scheme operator an exit fee that is calculated having regard to the length of time the resident resides in their unit.
On Tuesday, 29 November 2011, as part of its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2011-12, the Federal Government announced a package of changes intended to raise A$11.5 billion in new revenue and savings.
The Supreme Court of New South Wales recently held that certain clauses in services deeds between a manager and residents of a retirement village (under which residents gave the manager an exclusive sole agency and right of sale of residents' lot) were void because they were inconsistent with provisions of the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (NSW) (Act). This meant that on a proper construction of the services deeds the manager could not enforce a clause entitling it to a 'management profit' upon sale of the lots.