Especially issues that affect the elderly or retirees – I am on the way there at nearly 50, so I guess I get a might sensitive to pensioners and retirees getting ripped off.

They worked hard, saved, paid their taxes & some fought to protect our country. Others were peace-keepers of democracy, like in Korea.

And what about the Vietnam Vets? It may not have been OUR war, but the government made many of them fight via conscription. Let’s not lose sight of that fact.

So, you would think that these generations would be able to relax a bit & be rewarded for their efforts … not bloody likely!

In the City of Casey there are about 11 Retirement Villages. Residents of these villages are being blatantly ripped off through their council rates charges.

Retirement Villages are mainly gated communities. This means they are private property and unless you live there, or are a visitor that is authorised to come in, you can’t get through the gates. They have swipe cards to get in or you have to be buzzed in.

When the villages were built, the developers built the roads, street lights, recreation facilities & community centre. The residents are charged a weekly fee and this pays for the upkeep of these things.

This means that the council does not pay a cracker for them. Everything is maintained by the residents.

Now, get this, the council CHARGES the residents for the upkeep of the roads, street lights & facilities that they are already paying for!

Why should these people have to cop these charges in the first place, when they are already paying for them?

That was the first rip off.

Here is another one … most of the people I have spoken to have shifted from a big house on a fairly large block, to a much smaller unit on a tiny bit of turf. Yet they are paying about the same, sometimes more, in council rates than their family home.

How do they do the maths on that one? Retirement Villages, depending on the size of the development, should be getting a discount of 25%-50% of the council rates. In one council they had no rates at all for retirement villages, until they realised what a cash cow they could be for the council.

That to my way of thinking, and the residents, is DOUBLE DIPPING. First get them on the rates for services they have already paid for … then get them by having a different criteria for valuing retirement village units.

Where’s the respect?

It is disgusting that councils are over-valuing retirement village units so they can access what they feel is the money the retirees & pensioners have set aside. I have seen the rates notices, and after working in real estate for 10 years and viewed hundreds of Section 32’s (vendor statements that have the council rates in them), I can smell a council rat! It is quite obvious to me that they are preying on the vulnerable, thinking they won’t fight back.

You can almost see the councils rubbing their hands together with glee when another devleoper wants to build another village …

Well they were wrong! Grey Power is about to be unleashed.

Today the fight started in Cranbourne, with Casey retirement village residents congregating to hear what the council members of Casey have to say.

Wish I could have been there and I hope they got some video footage!

… and don’t get me started on Carers and what they should be getting (I’ll save that for another post).