New arrangements for retirement village meetings and voting procedures have been legislated as part of the ongoing process of COVID-19 provisions being made permanent in various areas of law.
The Retirement Villages Act 1999 has been amended to allow operators to hold meetings of residents and annual management meetings using electronic means.
The amendments also expand the existing voting procedures under the Act to allow for ballot voting by residents to be conducted by electronic means in addition to voting in person.
For all retirement village meetings and voting ballots the operator or the convener of the meeting is required to take reasonable steps to ensure each and every resident is able to participate and vote at the meeting using electronic means.
The commentary in the By Lawyers Retirement Villages (NSW) publication has been updated accordingly. It summarises the meeting and voting procedures and contains links to the new legislative provisions.
The By Lawyers Retirement Villages guide is part of the NSW Conveyancing publication. The matter plan contains many helpful precedents, including the standard retirement village contract, general inquiry document, disclosure statement, lease agreement, and the Model Rules. The full commentary assists practitioners to understand, and to advise their clients about, the standard contract, the mandatory documents, and the legislative requirements.