Uncertain future for elderly residents of popular Pinnacle Village Holiday Park if sale goes ahead
FACING EVICTION
Popular Pinnacle Village Holiday Park at Wonga Beach is under contract to be sold to a new owner, but it wasn’t the sort of news that about 20 elderly long-term residents of the park wanted to hear.
They now face an uncertain future and would likely have major difficulties finding somewhere else to move their caravans to and re-settle.
That’s if they are asked to vacate the park if the sale goes through, and the new owner does not want to keep existing arrangements.
The local state member Cynthia Lui’s office has already been approached for help by at least one of the residents looking for a new home because of the uncertainty.
Pinnacle Village owner Darryl Tenni told Newsport that while he could not divulge any details of the sale contract due to a confidentiality agreement, he has kept the residents informed of the possible sale and what could change under a new owner.
Mr Tenni said that what happens beyond the sale will no longer be up to him.
“Once it settles, that will be up to the new guys and what they do with it from then on,” Mr Tenni said. “My involvement with it will end after settlement.”
The only official advice to the residents so far is that there is a pending sale contract. If they must move their caravans out of the park’s 14 long-term lots, they are not expected to receive anything in writing until after settlement.
“Basically, they are all supposed to be movable dwellings.”
The outgoing owner said in the past 12 months he had to evict two of the long-term residents because “they needed to be in aged care.”
He said he believes most of the existing residents also face little or no options other than aged care accommodation, if it can be found in a sector coping with shortages of places, especially in the far north.
Ms Lui’s office has passed on the details of the resident who asked for help, an elderly woman, to the state Housing Department to see if they are able to assist her.
It is likely there will be a few more similar callouts for help from the residents to find accommodation.
Pinnacle Village has been in the one family’s hands for about 44 years. Mr Tenni’s father and mother started operating the 12-hectare park in 1978.
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