Campbelltown X Convenience and KFC plans will force out several pensioners from their rental properties
Tenants of a retirement village will be evicted in two months to make room for a new service station and KFC. Some, expecting a long stay, only just found out.
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Pensioners in a Campbelltown retirement village are scrambling to find new homes after learning they will lose their rental properties to make way for a potential KFC and petrol station.
But some of the tenants living in units in the Bellara Village on the corner of Newton and Gorge Roads said they did not formally know of the demolition and redevelopment plans until told by The Advertiser on Tuesday.
Plans for the drive-through fast food outlet and eight-pump X Convenience petrol station were lodged with Campbelltown Council on February 16 – 10 days before affected tenants received a letter advising their tenancies would not be renewed once their tenancy agreements expired on April 1.
They would have to leave the premises by May 27, said the letter seen by The Advertiser.
But Bellara Aged Care Village owner and managing director Crawford Giles said seven affected residents had been given 90 days’ notice to leave, well in excess of the 28 days required under the law.
Tenants Suzanne Hookings, 70, Dianne Cloke, 67 and Les Szalay, 74 said they had signed rental agreements in last May, June and August last year under the impression they would be long-term tenancies.
Ms Hookings said she had no idea that the property could be replaced with a petrol station and KFC.
“I thought they were going to pull them all down and put new units up,” she said.
“You know more than me. They would’ve known about this when we moved in and they told us we were going to be here for good.”
The pensioner, who shares her unit with cats Freddy and Sharni, said her “anxiety was through the roof” trying to find a new home.
“There’s nowhere; private rentals are too expensive, ECH might have something but with all of us looking it’s impossible,” she said.
Mr Szalay said he was “totally floored” by the plans.
“This is the first I’ve heard what they are going to do,” he said. “I would’ve kept looking for another place had I known.”
Ms Cloke said the property had convenient access to neighbouring shops.
“I was told that this was to be my home as long as I wish,” she said.
“I’m trying everywhere to try and get something, I’m on a pension, don’t have superannuation and can’t buy anything,” Ms Cloke said.
Another resident Juan Farah, 72, said he and his wife Imay, 73, moved from Dernancourt in mid-May and were “never” told Bellara was a short term rental.
He said an employee had told him within weeks of his tenancy that the places were to be knocked down and “new” properties built.
“I didn’t take much attention, I thought why would they bring people here and knock them down, it didn’t make sense to me,” he said.
“What bothers me is we were never told the truth ... we have been deceived and it bothers me very much.”
Mr Giles said the residents were not part of the wider retirement village and were subject to normal “short-term rental”.
“These are not people who are renting under the Retirement Villages Act, these are third party rental people,” he said.
“They were entitled to 28 days’ notice, I’ve given them triple the notice that they are entitled to … they signed leases that turned over on April 1 with no guarantee of an extension.”
He said he had been in discussions with KFC and X Convenience for about six months but that there was no contract with the companies and he did not want to tell residents to avoid creating unnecessary anxiety.
He said he had “nothing concrete” to tell residents and that none of his staff at the village were aware of the plans.
The proposed development will occupy 4200 sqm of the current 12,000 sqm site with the retirement village to the south of the rental units to be unaffected.
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