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Senior Homes · Guide 4 of 5 · When it stops

Retirement village disputes and who decides them

Seven states and territories name a body that decides retirement village disputes: NCAT in NSW, VCAT in Victoria, QCAT in Queensland, SACAT in South Australia, the State Administrative Tribunal in Western Australia and the ACAT in the ACT, while Tasmania puts the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading before TASCAT. What comes before that body differs from state to state, and this guide follows each path in turn.

General information, not legal advice. The tribunals and regulators named here publish their own guidance, linked at the foot of this page; a community legal centre or a solicitor can advise on a particular dispute.

Victoria

Three paths, and where to start

Consumer Affairs Victoria describes disputes between a resident and the operator or proprietor, and between residents, and says it is usually best to start with the village dispute procedure, often the quickest and simplest way to resolve things.

  1. The village dispute procedure

    Every operator must have one, published on its website, and must give a resident a copy within 2 business days of being asked. It tells residents how to raise a dispute and what the operator will do to resolve it.

  2. VicAssist Retirement Villages

    The retirement villages conciliation service. Conciliation is free and structured, with an impartial conciliator, and can happen in person, by phone or by video conference. It covers disputes with the operator or proprietor and disputes between residents. Some matters may not suit it, such as unwilling parties, breaches of legislation or cases already at VCAT; then the conciliator tells the parties and the matter can go to VCAT.

  3. VCAT

    The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal can make binding orders, including about compliance with and rescinding of contracts, maintenance charge decisions, exit entitlement payments, condition reports and capital maintenance obligations. In some circumstances it may consider whether the parties took part in conciliation in good faith.

After leaving

A former resident whose dispute is about how their exit was handled, such as how the exit entitlement was calculated, charges that kept running after they left, or reinstatement, may still apply for conciliation within 6 months of receiving the exit entitlement, and may still apply to VCAT. If a refund is not paid by its due date, the resident can ask VCAT for an order to pay, with interest at the statutory rate.

Where a village has an owners corporation, arguments over common property or the corporation’s decisions are handled separately, under the Owners Corporations Act 2006, rather than through the village procedure.

New South Wales

NCAT, the Commissioner and the residents committee

In NSW, NCAT’s Consumer and Commercial Division can hear and decide disputes between residents and operators over life in a retirement village. Matters are first listed for conciliation and hearing, and NCAT notes that most people represent themselves there. Time limits depend on the orders being sought, and NCAT points to the Retirement Villages Act 1999 for them.

Late exit payments have a second route for some former residents: NSW Fair Trading says to check eligibility before applying, and residents in strata schemes, company title and community title are excluded. The Commissioner for Fair Trading makes exit entitlement orders, directing an operator to pay a former resident early where the premises have not sold within the prescribed period or the operator has unreasonably delayed the sale. Operators must follow the order.

Residents elect a residents committee from among themselves, to stand for their interests and carry out certain functions. It cannot decide on residents’ behalf on matters that need the residents’ own consent. One is set up with the residents’ consent; among the requirements for that consent, more than 50% of the residents who vote, in person, by proxy or by postal vote, must give it.

Queensland

Talk first, then QCAT

The Queensland Government notes that miscommunication and misunderstanding often cause disputes, and that it is important to try talking to the person involved first. It says a tribunal hearing is open to you if you feel your home is at risk, or if you are a party to a building work dispute (over reinstatement or renovation work) or a dispute with the operator over a mandatory buy-back. Operators and residents must both comply with behavioural standards, enforceable through the Act’s dispute resolution procedures.

QCAT lists the retirement village disputes it hears as including restriction of use in a village, exit entitlements, unit resale and mandatory buy-backs, among other matters. The Queensland Government says a former resident may apply to QCAT for an order that the operator pay their exit entitlement when the unit has not sold because the operator did not do the reinstatement work, when the two sides could not agree on the resale value, or when the operator was not passing on all offers and not reconsidering the resale value every 3 months. QCAT also says that applying does not stop the parties settling privately, and that a local Dispute Resolution Centre can help them reach agreement informally.

Australian Capital Territory

The disputes committee, then the ACAT

Access Canberra lists the steps a resident may take, one or more of them:

  1. speaking with the operator;

  2. asking a third-party organisation for help;

  3. sending a ‘notice of dispute’ to the village disputes committee, which can resolve it or arrange mediation;

  4. getting information from Access Canberra or the ACT Human Rights Commission;

  5. taking it to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the ACAT) to be settled.

Access Canberra describes its own role as administering the laws, which includes inspecting villages and investigating claims that a village is not complying, and says that role does not include resolving disputes or complaints between operators and residents.

Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia

The Director, SACAT and Consumer Protection

Tasmania. Consumer Affairs Tasmania says village rules must set out how disputes are resolved. If the village’s process does not settle a dispute, either side may ask the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading to resolve it. The Director can make certain orders, including for payment of up to $5000, and an affected person may appeal the Director’s order to TASCAT.

South Australia. A village must have a dispute resolution policy, a written process for disagreements between residents and the operator or among residents. The changes to section 46, on dispute resolution at SACAT, apply to all residents whenever they signed, under the new laws that started on 2 February 2026. SACAT can also extend an operator’s time to pay an exit entitlement where special circumstances exist, on an application made within the time section 27 allows.

Western Australia. Consumer Protection WA says that if an operator does not give you an exit entitlement statement within a reasonable time of your asking, you can contact Consumer Protection. Western Australia’s Retirement Villages Act 1992 lets a resident ask the State Administrative Tribunal for an order that an operator comply with the Act’s rules on leaving a village. It also sends some other disputes there, among them whether a residence contract meets what the regulations require of residence contracts, and, once the residents pass a special resolution, an increase in recurrent charges or a new levy.

The payment deadlines these bodies enforce are set out in the guide to being paid when you leave; Victoria’s new VCAT powers for contracts from 1 May 2026 are in the guide to Victoria’s reforms.