TCA members act as Statutory Supervisors
for more than 60% of registered Retirement Villages.
Statutory Supervisors are appointed by the retirement village operator, but they must remain independent from the village management. Their responsibility is to work in a consultative way to oversee the operations of each retirement village and monitor its financial position for the benefit and protection of residents. This includes overseeing how each retirement village complies with relevant laws and regulations.
Role of the Statutory Supervisor in Retirement Villages
Simply, the Statutory Supervisor's role in a retirement village is to protect the interests of the residents as a collective body of people. The Statutory Supervisor is not there to take sides and is not there to act as a representative either of individual residents or groups of residents.
Information for Village Operators
Residents and operators can be assured that TCA member Statutory Supervisors adhere to the highest standards of service and professional competence and they can rely on TCA holding its member statutory supervisors to account.
TCA member Statutory Supervisors adhere to common standards of documentation such as the Deed of Supervision. TCA has developed a template Deed of Supervision that details the rights and obligations of the operator and of the Statutory Supervisor for an individual village which also provides for the possibility that things may go wrong and will then need to be remedied.
The use of the Statutory Supervisor's trust account for all capital sums that pass between a resident and an operator reduces the risk that money will be paid to the wrong person or that money will be paid across in the event that a prior issue has not been resolved.
Information for Village Residents
TCA members aspire to the highest standards of protection of residents' interests.
Protection is achieved both passively (by the statutory supervisor holding a security that is registered over the village land to protect the residents' interest in the village) and actively (by regularly monitoring the financial position of theoperator and the management of the village).
A resident can expect to see a representative of their Statutory Supervisor at least once a year and should feel free to make contact with their Statutory Supervisor at any time throughout the year if the need arises. A resident should not expect the Statutory Supervisor to automatically "side with" the resident but should have confidence in the Statutory Supervisor's ability and experience to deal with all matters in a professional manner.
A resident has the right to make a complaint concerning any loss suffered as a result of the way in which money has been handled by a TCA member Statutory Supervisor that passed through, or was held in, a trust account. The complaint must be made to the Statutory Supervisor in the first instance and must be dealt with within 20 working days (with an extension of up to 20 working days if requested by the Statutory Supervisor). If a resident is unhappy with the conclusion reached regarding the complaint, the resident has two months to contact the appropriate approved dispute resolution scheme (click here for details).
TCA expects its member Statutory Supervisors to provide quality, professional service at all times.