Albertans waiting for life-lease repayments form society to call for change

Albertans waiting for large sums of money, that an Edmonton property developer owes them under seniors' housing contracts, are formally organizing to push for a resolution.

A growing number of people are stuck in queues for Christenson Group of Companies to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars that they or their relatives are owed after leaving life-lease units.

The newly incorporated Alberta Life Lease Protection Society was created to be a more official point of contact, after people started connecting on social media last year, said president Karin Dowling, who is among those in line.

"Should there become a legal aspect to this, we'll be able to represent those in the society within some kind of legal action," Dowling said.

"Another part of that is to really lobby the government to get involved… [and] bring forward new legislation so that this doesn't happen to anybody else in the future."

Society members are meeting with Christenson representatives, but they're also planning more advocacy to bolster protections around life leases, she said.

The Christenson Group operates several retirement communities in central and northern Alberta, nine of which include life leases — a model where residents pay a lump sum up front for the right to occupy a unit, and make monthly payments to cover operating costs.

Christenson Group president Greg Christenson told CBC News Friday that there are now about 170 people waiting in life-lease queues, up from his estimate of 100 in October.

More than 400 other people are still in active life leases, who would be added to the queue if they die or move out. The company is trying to remortgage the buildings to make sure everyone can be repaid, Christenson said.

Under the life lease model, when residents die or move out, their initial investment is returned, minus a percentage that the housing operator keeps and puts toward refurbishing the unit. In the Christenson Group's life-lease agreements, the company keeps eight per cent of the lump-sum payment.

The repayment queue is also a part of the agreement, kicking in when more than six per cent of life-lease residents terminate their leases. But according to Christenson, the queue started to grow out of control during the disruption of the COVID pandemic. The company is now moving away from offering life leases entirely.

"Mathematically, when you get to 170 people in the queue, and that pace of releasing, it's just not going to happen. It clearly is going to be a conversion to rental," Christenson said.

Appraisals have been done on all nine of the retirement communities with life leases and the company is discussing refinancing options with lenders, he said.

They're also looking at different options to reduce vacancy rates while the company converts them to rental only, as opposed to a mix of rentals and life leases, he said.