As the days inch closer to your move-in date, it can be a time filled with nervous anticipation. While you are ready to start enjoying your new home, there are some measures you need to take to prepare for your new life at The Rise. These include the legal requirements, all the way through to ensuring you have a hot cuppa and a comfortable bed on your first night. After welcoming many residents to our retirement villages, here is an overview of what you need to know.
Leading up to settlement, your sales consultant will provide you with regular updates regarding the construction process and formal notice before your apartment is due to be completed, so you have time to visit your new home to ensure you are happy to proceed and make arrangements to move.
If you have a home to sell, you should liaise with your solicitor in regards to the sale of your home. Your solicitor will maintain contact with RetireAustralia’s solicitors and keep them informed as to the status of the sale of your home and the agreed settlement dates.
Once you are ready to confirm a settlement date, please notify your sales consultant, your solicitor or, if you don’t have a solicitor, RetireAustralia’s solicitors.
Our solicitors will then produce a settlement statement confirming what funds are required for settlement. This statement will be issued to your solicitor or direct to you. The settlement statement will have electronic fund transfer (EFT) details, so you know where to send the funds on settlement day.
On or before the day of settlement, you will arrange to have the funds sent to your solicitor or to RetireAustralia’s solicitors direct.
Once our solicitors receive the funds, they will notify RetireAustralia. In turn, your sales consultant will contact you to make arrangements for you to collect the keys to your new home.
Our solicitors will finalise the contract/agreement and arrange to have the title or lease formally registered at the titles office. Once the registered documents are received, RetireAustralia’s solicitors will arrange to send copies to you/your solicitor.
Prior to settlement (or sometimes at settlement) you will have the opportunity to walk through your apartment and complete a condition report to take a record of the apartment’s condition when you move in.
Once you know your settlement date you can start organising removalists and begin packing.
You will also need to organise the disconnection and reconnection of utilities and services. Some of these may seem obvious, but it can be easy to overlook when you’re busy moving and they may prove essential.
You will also need to let key institutions and agencies know about your new address including:
The day has finally arrived and, as you know, it will be a big one. When you arrive at your new apartment, you should make sure all services, such as electricity, internet, phone etc. have been connected in your new home.
We always suggest that the first thing new residents bring in and have set up is their bed. Have pillows, sheets and blankets somewhere handy, so that if all else fails you have somewhere to sleep that first night.
We also recommend packing a box that’s clearly marked “essentials”, that contains a kettle, tea or coffee, toilet paper, toiletries, a towel and some snacks/breakfast items. This means that you can always have a hot cuppa and have some essentials on hand if you need a break or decide to call it a day.
In your first few days at The Rise, your Village Manager will provide you with essential information, such as emergency procedures, important phone numbers and other information about life in your new community.
As you settle in, they will also let you know about the resident groups/committees that you can join if you so wish. As well as the activities that are available. You can then discover the village at your own pace.
“The first few days we didn’t really leave the apartment, because we were busy unpacking. We’d just bump into people in the garage or the foyer, but everyone was very friendly and welcoming,” says Judy, a RetireAustralia resident. “We then made a point of going to happy hour, so that we could get to know people.”
