Repairs for 1,000 buildings in urgent need of maintenance will take months to complete, the city’s development chief has said, following several cases of concrete falling from ageing structures earlier this month.
Speaking at an awards ceremony on Sunday, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn said the government would step up enforcement action and provide owners with financial or technical assistance to complete the necessary work.
Speaking in Cantonese, Linn said she hoped to improve cooperation between the Home Affairs Department, the Urban Renewal Authority, and the Buildings Department, allowing all parties to more systematically share and exchange information.
“[I]f we find that there are buildings in an urgent situation that cannot wait [for repairs], the Buildings Department has a responsibility to carry out repairs immediately, but the owners will also have to take up their own responsibility,” she said.
Urgent repairs
Linn also said that some 1,000 buildings were in need of urgent repairs, adding that the department had already started work on some buildings. Authorities will recover fees from owners at a later date.
The development minister’s remarks came amid a spate of incidences of falling concrete – six in the span of less than a month – that ignited public concern over building safety.
On Sunday, a piece of concrete fell from a building on Wah Sing Road in Kwai Chung, and on Saturday, a piece of concrete measuring 50 centimetres by 30 centimetres fell from Sun Hing Building onto Nathan Road in Mong Kok, local media reported.
The government said earlier that outer walls of neglected buildings may be prone to “changes” due to recent weather conditions after a man was hit by a large slab of concrete that fell from the second floor of a 58-year-old building on Shau Kei Wan Road.
Earlier this month, chunks of concrete fell from Po On Building on Mong Kok Road twice in three days, injuring a truck driver on the first occasion. Concrete also fell from another industrial building on Tong Mi Road in Mong Kok.
Warnings issued
Linn added that 2,700 buildings whose notices under the government’s Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme – which requires owners of buildings more than 30 years old to undergo mandatory inspections – had expired, and that the owners had been served warnings.
Repairs for 1,800 of those buildings with expired notices had not been completed after inspections. “The Buildings Department is now urging them to start the repairs. If there is no progress, the department may consider prosecution by the end of this year,” Linn said.
Inspectors had not been appointed for the remaining 900 buildings, Linn said, saying that the department “will not wait, because [owners] have not done anything even after the expiry [of the notice].”
The department will also explore the possibility of helping owners set up owners’ corporations, and conducting patrols to offer assistance where necessary, Linn added.
