Former residents of several Christenson Group of Companies retirement buildings have been waiting in queues — in some cases up to two years — to be repaid hundreds of thousands of dollars they put into life leases. The Christenson Group president says they'll be repaid, but it will take time.Mona MacKenzie, far left, and Marion Dowling, far right, both formerly lived in life-lease units at retirement homes owned by Christenson Group of Companies.
Families feel lost about what they should do, and seniors who currently live in life-lease units are frightened too, Dowling told CBC News. In 2021, her mother-in-law, Marion Dowling, moved out of Christenson's Devonshire Village in southwest Edmonton. 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. Under the Christenson Group's life-lease agreements, the company keeps eight per cent of the lump-sum payment.
That's because some buildings saw more than six per cent of life-lease residents terminate their leases, and the agreements state that when that happens, a queue for repayment begins.On its website, the Christenson Group says that queuing is a measure to protect property values. It says that less than six per cent of all life-leased suites in a building must be available for re-leasing at any time, "to avoid depressing the suite values.
On Sept. 29, the Christenson Group sent a letter to residents of Devonshire Village that said the complex reached the six per cent life-lease termination threshold in December 2018. Mona MacKenzie, who died in January 2023, moved into life-lease housing in 2019. Her son has been unable to settle her estate while the lump sum she put toward her unit is waiting in a repayment queue.
Instead, he got a letter from the Christenson Group informing him he was in the queue, since Royal Oak Village had hit the six per cent termination threshold. "She saved all her life so that she would have some money to help her in her final years in safety and security," he said. "The estate's in limbo now, so we can't get that money out. Our grandkids could use it right now. But Christenson's got it."Christenson said the majority of people waiting for money are in a few buildings — like Devonshire Village and St. Albert's Citadel Village East — where life leases had been more popular for some of the larger units.