Yes, just like in your current home, if you move to a retirement village you will be in control of, and responsible for, all household bills such as electricity, water, contents insurance and council tax.

It depends on which property you choose to buy or rent. Each retirement property comes with its own specification information that will tell you everything that is included in your new home. If you have any questions or are still unsure what is included, then one of our retirement village advisers will be happy to help.

Yes of course! Your apartment or house, in any of our retirement villages, is your home. Our village facilities are available for your guests to use too. However, please note that you cannot sub-let your apartment.

Yes, you can bring a pet to live with you in the designated ‘pet-friendly’ homes and apartments. There are some communal areas where pets are not permitted such as the library, brasserie and Wellness Centre but Inspired Villages are, on the whole, pet-welcoming places. To find out specific rules for each village, our retirement village advisers will be happy to help, get in touch.

A carefully chosen selection of work surfaces, door finishes, and floor options are available for early phase buyers to make their kitchens bespoke. Once a build has progressed as far as fitting the kitchen, the options become ‘Designer’s Choice’. Once a property is purchased, the owners are of course able to make reasonable changes. The designer’s choice will be the default fit for all properties, however, there will be an opportunity to choose from 3 work surfaces including the option of granite, a choice of handles and a choice of shaker-style door fronts or simple gloss white doors.

Structural changes may only be made with the freeholder’s permission and in the first instance we recommend discussing any proposed changes with the village management company.

It depends on the type of improvements you want to make to your home. Decorative work is allowed but please obtain our consent before carrying out any works to the property.

Yes, you can sell your home as you would any other property, however, we reserve the right to buy your property first. There will be fees to pay when the property is sold, but these will be explained to you in detail when you first contact us to express your interest in buying an apartment. Usually, the fees will amount to between 4% and 10% of the sale price of the apartment depending on how long you have owned the property at the time you sell. We recommend that you and/or a solicitor checks through them before purchasing a retirement property in one of our villages.

Yes, if you live locally prior to moving into one of our retirement villages, there should be no need for any change. If you are moving from outside the area, you will need to register with a local GP. We will offer local GPs the opportunity to hold mini surgeries for residents within the Wellness Centre for their convenience as well as that of residents.

In our retirement villages, visitors may stay in homes for up to 28 days or, if preferred, in the guest suites provided in each village. The guest suite is available to book via the village manager at reasonable rates.

Yes, we would urge you to seek independent advice, support and representation as appropriate in connection with a move to a retirement community.

Each of our retirement apartments has storage designed into them. We fully understand that storage is a major issue for people downsizing, however, we’ve found through experience that central storage becomes unmanageable and can often grow beyond control. For that reason, we have modest storage areas which are located mainly in the hallways.

Apartments that share a lift and common access, have a store area which will be subdivided into sections creating approximately 1.5m3 of space. (There is no similar provision for the walk-up apartments in the village centre, however, there will be caged store areas for suitcases etc. for each apartment). We are working closely with a comprehensive storage company and are hoping to deliver a package deal which can be between 2m3 to half a garage, or a whole garage, in size. Please call for more details.

The Wellness Centre forms part of the village centre. As well as offering relaxation and leisure, this will enable healthcare professionals, both NHS and private, to prescribe, advise and provide individual programmes. These include fitness, falls prevention services, stroke rehabilitation, assessment clinics, physiotherapy, long term conditions management and promotion of self-care, expert patients’ programmes, cognitive stimulation, as well as pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation programmes. Many of the clinics we run will be free of charge or have only a nominal charge.

We have many different blogs that can help you, including how to get back into exercising after 65 or how to create an exercise routine in retirement.

If you are looking to reserve one of our retirement apartments or homes, then please contact one of our village advisers at the village you are looking to move to. They will take you through the simple purchase process and also be able to offer advice and practical help with selling your existing property, downsizing and de-cluttering.

Our Villages

The service charge is calculated at each individual village depending on the facilities provided. If you would like to find out the service charge for each retirement village, please speak to the sales advisers at your retirement village of choice.

Increases in service charges will only reflect any higher costs of providing and maintaining the facilities and services, plus any future Government legislation. The management companies are acutely aware of the need to keep costs under control and will ensure any increases are kept to a minimum.

In each of our retirement villages, there is a 24 hour on-call service for assistance in the event of an emergency or problem.

Yes, there is a minimum age of 65 that applies to all of our retirement villages. If you are part of a couple, then only one of you needs to be 65 or over. And despite what the name suggests, you don’t actually need to be retired to live in one of our retirement villages.*Please note some of our villages have different age restrictions.

Yes, each home has an unobtrusive system installed enabling residents to contact on-site staff in the event of a medical or property emergency at any time, during designated hours. Outside of these hours, the system is connected to a professionally managed UK-based off-site emergency call centre.

At selected times during the week, a qualified member of staff will be on duty. They will be able to deal with medical emergencies and minor ailments, as well as give general medical advice on health matters. They will organise ‘well person’ clinics and annual flu jabs with the GP consultant to the village.*Please note that this may differ across our various villages.

For the majority of our retirement villages, you may be offered an allocated car parking space, which is offered under a license. This is renewable every 12 months. There are spaces surrounding the apartment buildings and within the village centres. If you would like to find our what the parking is like at each retirement village, please speak to the retirement villages sales advisor.

All our retirement villages feature a wide range of facilities for use by residents and their guests including a leisure pool, fitness centre, library and coffee lounge, games room, residents’ meeting/club room, restaurant and bar, guest suite, medical centre, village shop and post box. In our experience, a wide range of clubs, societies and events are also organised by residents such as rambling, art, table tennis, croquet, theatre trips, music, line dancing, photography, bridge, coffee mornings, talks, parties and shows – the list is almost endless.

We certainly aim to resolve individual requirements wherever we can. Parking is always an issue on new village developments due to restrictions placed on us by the planners, and for this reason, we restrict parking to one space each and do not provide a dedicated place for those without a car. There is visitor parking allocated as well. In the early years, people tend to have more cars than later on when the village matures, and so if a second car is an absolute necessity, then we would endeavor to advise about local storage. Some more rural retirement villages provide greater opportunities for additional parking. It is of course in everyone’s interest that parking is discreet and does not dominate the village landscape.

Each retirement apartment and retirement home will be fitted out with different coloured recycling bins. We also have a central recycling area that will be fed that by way of mobile bins on the trailer located in parts of the village for specific times during the week. There will also be some recycling areas that are available for people to dispose of packaging and other material at any time.

For full peace of mind, measures have been introduced to provide security through both fencing and landscape treatment, controlled access points, 24-hour CCTV and a range of management security policies and procedures. The careful layout and arrangement of the village ensures people feel safe and secure, and the ‘public’ spaces will have a high level of staff and occupier surveillance.

Our fees differ from village to village, so please contact one of our village advisers who will be happy to provide a breakdown of the fees.

Here is an example of how our fees are broken down:

• Maintenance of the buildings and grounds and the village administration.
• 24-hour on-call response.
• Village transportation for local appointments, outings, shopping, etc.
• Activities – a growing number of events, outings and activities will be available.  Extra costs will be charged for entrance fees and tickets for theatre trips, concerts, etc.
• Telephone, television, and WiFi for residents’ apartments.
• Insurance, maintenance, and repair contracts for the exterior of the buildings including window cleaning.

The following services are available at an extra cost:

• Lounge/coffee shop for morning coffee/light lunch/afternoon tea.
• Home care – for housekeeping, personal care, shopping and accompanying residents on local outings.

All of our retirement villages are age-exclusive and we welcome any residents who meet the qualifying age criteria. Durrants, Millbrook and Bramshott Place have a minimum age of 55, Great Alne Park has a minimum age of 60, Austin Heath, Gifford Lea, Ledian Gardens, Elderswell and any new retirement villages have a minimum age of 65, subject to terms and conditions*.

External redecoration is the responsibility of the retirement village’s management company within a planned and budgeted cycle. Internal redecoration is your responsibility as the leaseholder.

Inspired retirement villages provide daily on-site management to the retirement villages through management companies in each location, all of which are overseen by our head office team. Management companies include a village manager, maintenance supervisor and all other staff required to provide the services and maintain the facilities.

Yes there will be an annual service charge which covers expenses relating to the comprehensive communal facilities and services, and management fee. Ground rent may apply at certain retirement villages, and we strongly advise you to check with the village adviser.

Inspired apartments are offered on a long leasehold basis, which is how most flats and apartments are sold. Leasehold gives you ownership of a portion of the building (your apartment or cottage) for a set period of time.

Yes of course!