Retirement village group lodges complaint over Metlifecare cashback deal

The Retirement Village Residents’ Association has complained to the Commerce Commission about village incentives for new buyers after an Auckland woman has been waiting 15 months for repayment of more than half a million dollars from the resale of her unit.

Village owner Metlifecare cited the sluggish housing market and its spokeswoman said it could only repay a resident once their unit was sold and it had no knowledge of the commission complaint.

Pat Price told the Herald she had lived at Metlifecare’s Greenwich Gardens on Auckland’s North Shore since 2020.

But last August she left to live with her family in Swanson and has since been waiting to get some of her capital returned.

She had paid $695,000 for a licence to occupy and is now owed $515,000.

“I never thought I’d have to wait this long for the money. It’s been very hard on me financially. I left the village for personal family reasons,” she said.

Troy Churton and Nigel Matthews of the association complained to the commission about Metlifecare’s $30,000 cashback incentive to new buyers, which they said disadvantaged people like Price.

The association alleged Metlifecare had breached the Fair Trading Act and retirement villages regulations and wants the company to get a warning for its conduct and for enforcement action to occur.

It had long-held concerns with operators’ promotional techniques relating to the sale and resale of units in villages across the industry, the complaint said.

“There is strong potential that some promotional techniques impact not only on new unit sales times but also existing unit resale times and therefore impact on the rights of residents entering and exiting villages. The commission has previously recognised strong public interest in ensuring terms in occupational right agreements are fair,” the November 13 complaint said.

Metlifecare’s spokeswoman said incentives to sell new units brought further buyers for existing ones and the company had done all it could to sell Price’s apartment.

“This resident’s unit has essentially been sold three times in the past 15 months,“ she said, citing contracts signed but without final settlement.

Two buyers failed to settle because sales on their homes could not be completed.

“This is not Metlifecare’s fault or doing, but entirely the result of a signed incoming resident’s deal being unable to settle. It happens, unfortunately, in this market,” she said.

Price said what irked her most is the marketing priority given to new units at Greenwich Gardens, with Metlifecare offering a $30,000 cash-back incentive to new buyers.

She hoped a live offer would settle.

Metlifecare does too.

The company spokeswoman said of the commission complaint: “We have no knowledge of this. Metlifecare hasn’t been contacted and FYI the cashback promotion is not anything to do with unfair contract terms, so unlikely the commission will be interested at all.”

The company said nor was it at fault for Price’s place remaining unsold.

“The falling over of multiple offers on this unit is definitely unfortunate and perhaps reflective of the wider real estate market and general economy.

“However, that does not in any way indicate that Metlifecare, as the operator, is unable to sell units, resale or otherwise,” the spokeswoman said.

Matthews said other incentives offered to new buyers were:

But the Metlifecare spokeswoman said incentives had not had a negative impact on Price’s resale.

“On the contrary, it has brought more buyers into the village overall as it was intended to do, some of whom have then decided to buy resale units instead,” she said on the $30,000 cashback offer.

On allegations the promotion disadvantages resales, the spokeswoman said: “It has had no negative impact on former residents who are awaiting repayment of their capital sum.

“We have sold many resale units while the cashback offer on new units was in place, so it’s wrong to claim that the campaign negatively impacted resales.”

The $30,000 offer finished last month, she said.

A commission spokesman said a complaint has been received but it has yet to go through the assessment process.

No decision has been made on whether further action was required.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.