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OFT investigation into retirement home transfer fee terms: a report on the OFT's findings
- Author:
- OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING
- Publisher:
- Stationery Office
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 68p.
- Place of publication:
- London
In September 2009 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced an investigation into the contract terms signed by owner-occupiers of purpose-built retirement homes. The OFT considered that a number of terms relating to transfer fees, payable when a lease is assigned, sold or disposed of, may be unfair, and hence breach the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Transfer fee terms typically provide that a percentage of the sale price or original purchase price goes to the developer and/or managing agent when the property is sold or sub-let and can amount to thousands of pounds. In general, the OFT believes that there are a number of features of transfer fee terms which make them potentially unfair. In particular, consumers may struggle to understand the implications of the transfer fee (even when transparent) due to a lack of certainty about their future financial obligations. As a result of the investigation, a number of landlords have agreed to make changes. The report sets out general principles that all landlords will be expected to abide by when enforcing transfer fee terms in existing leases. The OFT also recommends that legislative reform be considered as a means to address the difficulties tenants have in challenging the reasonableness of transfer fees.
What's in a name? Similarities and differences in international terms and meanings for older peoples' housing with services
- Authors:
- HOWE Anna L., JONES Andrew E., TILSE Cheryl
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 33(4), 2013, pp.547-578.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The diversity of terms and meanings relating to housing with services for older people confounds systematic analysis, especially in international comparative research. This paper presents an analysis of over 90 terms identified in literature from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reporting types of housing with services under the umbrella of ‘service integrated housing’ (SIH), defined as all forms of accommodation built specifically for older people in which the housing provider takes responsibility for delivery of one or more types of support and care services. A small number of generic terms covering housing for people in later life, home and community care, and institutional care are reviewed first to define the scope of SIH. Review of the remainder identifies different terms applied to similar types of SIH, similar terms applied to different types, and different terms that distinguish different types. Terms are grouped into those covering SIH focused on lifestyle and recreation, those offering only support services, and those offering care as well as support. Considerable commonality is found in underlying forms of SIH, and common themes emerge in discussion of drivers of growth and diversification, formal policies and programmes, and symbolic meanings. In establishing more commonality than difference, clarification of terminology advances policy debate, programme development, research and knowledge transfer within and between countries. (Publisher abstract)
Senior cohousing communities: an alternative approach for the UK?
- Author:
- BRENTON Maria
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 21p.
- Place of publication:
- York
This paper examines the notion of ‘cohousing’, draws on examples of cohousing from outside the UK and assesses the potential for cohousing in the UK. It was commissioned as part of the JRF programme on A Better Life, which aims to increase understanding of what can help older people with high support needs now and in the future. Cohousing is a form of group living which clusters individual homes around a ‘common house’ or shared space and amenities. Run and controlled entirely by members of the group working together, it is based on mutual support, self-governance and active participation. Two cohousing models exist, the inter-generational or family-based model and senior cohousing, for age-peer groups usually over the age of fifty. Cohousing is a way of living both ‘apart and together’ with a collaborative group of neighbours who know each other and sign up to certain values. They work to develop the social capital that creates and maintains a sense of community. This report draws on two events in Spring 2012. The first, in York, brought together people aged over 50, mainly from existing or recently formed groups interested in cohousing. The second, in Dunfermline, included representatives of local authorities and housing associations with people aged over 50.