Continuing care retirement communities: contracts.

Existing law generally provides for the regulation of continuing care retirement communities and continuing care contracts by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law requires any provider offering a refundable contract, defined as a continuing care contract that includes a promise by the provider to pay an entrance fee refund or to repurchase the transferor's interest in the continuing care retirement community when the promise to refund some or all of the initial entrance fee extends beyond the resident's 6th year of residency, to maintain a refund reserve in trust for residents of the continuing care community. That refund reserve requirement does not apply to a continuing care contract that includes a promise to repay all or a portion of an entrance fee that is conditioned upon reoccupancy or resale of the unit previously occupied by the resident, if the conditional promise of repayment is not referred to by the applicant or provider as a "refund." This bill would instead make the refund reserve requirement inapplicable to a continuing care contract that includes a promise to repay all or a portion of an entrance fee that is conditioned upon reoccupancy or resale of any unit previously occupied by the resident. Existing law requires that a continuing care contract contain specified information, including an itemization of the services that are included in the monthly fee and the services that are available at an extra charge. Existing law also requires that a continuing care contract contain the policy or terms for refunding any portion of the entrance fee, in the event of cancellation, termination, or death, and requires every continuing care contract that provides for a refund of all or a part of the entrance fee to state specified duties of the provider if the contract is canceled or terminated by the provider. This bill would additionally require, if the provider cancels or terminates a contract that includes a repayment of all or a portion of the entrance fee conditioned upon the resale of a unit, the contract to state the average and longest amount of time that it has taken for a resident to receive a full repayment within the last 5 calendar years. This bill would also prohibit the provider from charging the resident or his or her estate a monthly fee after the contract is terminated and the unit has been permanently vacated by the resident, except as specified.