Can you have visitors stay with you when you live in a retirement village?
The short answer is yes, but there are limits!
Your residence contract or your village rules/by-laws (usually attached to, and forming part of, your residence contract) will stipulate the conditions around having visitors, with the main condition being the length of time a someone may stay. Generally, villages will say that you cannot have a visitor stay for more than four weeks in any 12-month period. However, there will also be a provision where you can seek the manager’s permission for stays that are longer than the four-week cap.
The rules are put in place to prevent people lobbing into your unit for long-term visits. It is not unusual for residents to request management apply the rule to visitors (usually family!) that refuse to leave!
Long term visitor licence
In some instances, a village operator may grant a long-term visitor licence. This allows the visitor to have officially recognised tenure in the unit, without having their name on the lease or licence. For example, a son or daughter or sibling may move into the unit to be a live-in carer for the resident. Or a resident may marry someone many years younger than they are (it happens!!).
Retirement village operators will typically be loath to cut a new lease or licence to attach a new name to the contract and they are under no obligation to do so (particularly if the proposed new resident is significantly younger than the current resident).
Residents should also be aware that after exit and resale of the unit, any monies refunded will be paid in to the former lessee’s or licencee’s bank account. It is not paid according to the last will and testament.
Suggested next read: Retirement Village Rules and By-Laws