Six months into Victoria's retirement village reforms, most operators have a retirement village capital maintenance plan on paper. Fewer could tell you, with evidence, where every number in it came from.
That gap matters more each year. The reforms that started on 1 May 2026 put a plan in every village. The next wave, landing on 25 November 2026 and 1 July 2027, asks operators to show their working: maintenance request records, testing schedules, hazard reporting and a written repair procedure.
If your asset information still lives in a mix of spreadsheets, old registers and someone's memory, this is the year to fix it.
The Retirement Villages Amendment Act 2025 amends the Retirement Villages Act 1986, and the changes and new Regulations started on 1 May. They cover contracts, disputes, exit payments and more. For anyone running the physical village, the big one is maintenance.
Operators are now responsible for the buildings, structures, plant, machinery, equipment and infrastructure they don't hand over to residents or an owners corporation. According to Consumer Affairs Victoria, operators must:
The plan itself is a long-range document. WT Partnership describes it as a 10-year plan for each village. It has to show what you own, what condition it's in, when work will be needed, what it will cost, and what you based those calls on.
That last part is the hard bit. A plan built on guesses is easy to write and hard to defend.
The capital maintenance plan isn't a document you file and forget. Each year at the AGM, operators must give residents a copy of the plan, a report on how it was carried out, and a summary of money in and out of the capital maintenance fund.
So the question residents will ask is simple: you said you'd replace the lifts in year three, did you? If not, why not? Answering that well means having a clean record of every job raised, completed or deferred.
It doesn't stop there. Since 1 May, operators also need an emergency and evacuation plan, plus a safety inspection and an evacuation exercise every year. And more is on the way.
| Date | What starts |
|---|---|
| 1 May 2026 | Capital maintenance plan and fund, AGM reporting, emergency plan, annual safety inspections and evacuation exercises |
| 25 November 2026 | A prescribed form for the 21-day notice of a meeting to vote on a maintenance charge increase above the adjusted charge |
| 1 July 2027 | Mandatory Code of Practice: a written capital repair and maintenance procedure, records of repair and maintenance requests, a testing schedule for emergency detection, alarm and communication systems, and a process for residents to report hazards |
The Code of Practice also lists good practice: consulting the residents committee on the capital maintenance plan before the AGM, and explaining any big departures from it. Source: Consumer Affairs Victoria.
Most operators understand the law well enough. Where they get stuck is the information the plan has to stand on.
In a lot of villages the asset register is a spreadsheet last updated when the village was built, or a list that lives with one long-serving manager. Condition notes are patchy. Maintenance requests come in by phone, email and a note under the office door, and nobody can pull them into one view.
That was workable when the stakes were lower. Now the plan goes in front of residents every year, and from July 2027 your maintenance request records sit under a mandatory code. If the history isn't captured as the work happens, it's very hard to rebuild later.
You don't need to rebuild everything at once. A sensible order:
A capital maintenance plan is usually prepared by a specialist, and it should be. What MYBOS does is keep the day-to-day record that plan depends on, so next year's update starts from facts rather than guesswork.
MYBOS is building management and retirement village maintenance software. Your asset register, maintenance requests, work orders, contractor jobs and recurring inspections sit in one place. Every job is tied to an asset and timestamped, so you can see what was planned, what was done and what slipped. When the AGM comes round, or a resident asks about the lifts, the answer is a few clicks away.
If you run a retirement village in Victoria and want to see how other operators are setting this up, book a demo with our team.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Check your obligations with Consumer Affairs Victoria or your legal adviser.