No amnesty for unauthorised building works

June 08, 2011

Secretary for Development Carrie Lam reiterated that any building works carried out or structures completed that were not in compliance with the Buildings Ordinance are unauthorised, and no administrative measures can deem them to be legal.
 
Mrs Lam said in accordance with the Buildings Ordinance, the Building Authority will consider only issues related to building safety. A proposal to exempt unauthorised building works from regulation under the ordinance upon payment of a land premium is neither feasible nor reasonable, she stressed.
 
If owners with financial means could retain their unauthorised building works by making a payment, it would be unfair to those owners without financial means, those whose unauthorised building works were cleared under the policy, and those who had voluntarily removed their unauthorised building works after receiving advisory letters in the past decade.
 
Under the minor works control system, the Government has introduced a validation scheme for minor works which are daily necessities such as air-conditioning installations and clothes-drying racks. Mrs Lam said owners should find a technically competent person to certify the safety of these minor works and then they could be kept. 
 
To have a more comprehensive understanding of the current number and overall situation of unauthorised building works, the Building Department has awarded contracts to a number of consultant companies to conduct a stock-taking exercise on unauthorised building works on the exterior of about 41,000 private buildings in Hong Kong in the coming year.
 
This will enable the department to set up a comprehensive database, with records on the types and number of unauthorised building works on  private buildings' exteriors, to make appropriate arrangements for prioritising enforcement action and conducting large-scale operations. The estimated cost for the whole exercise is around $27 million.