LAND AND HOUSING
RENT CONTROL
133
Rent control instituted by proclamation immediately after the war was embodied in the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance in 1947. This restricted rent by reference to pre-war figures and at the same time freed new and substantially reconstructed buildings from control. Thus, the broad distinction between controlled and uncontrolled premises lies in whether they are pre-war or post-war buildings. The 1947 Ordinance allowed increases beyond standard rent of 30 per cent in the case of domestic premises and 45 per cent for business premises; the 45 per cent became 100 per cent in 1949 and, through further amending legislation in 1953, the 30 per cent rose to 55 per cent while the 100 per cent advanced in two stages to 150 per cent. These increases, 55 per cent for domestic premises and 150 per cent for business premises, still stand.
Redevelopment of old buildings is covered by an important provision in the ordinance whereby premises may be excluded from its operation. This power rests with the Governor in Council and, in relation to particular premises, can be exercised only after a recommendation from a tenancy tribunal. Tribunals follow the criterion of public interest and award compensation to tenants in relation to the hardship which dispossession will cause them; such compensation recommended by the Tenancy Tribunals during the year was $98,166,305. This large sum must be viewed in relation to the enhanced value of the land arising from the acquired freedom to rebuild. In 1954-5, 4,778 ordinary cases were filed and 377 exclusion cases and in 1963-4, 806 ordinary cases and 7,577 exclu- sion cases. This change in the nature of the work reflects the exten- sive re-development of pre-war protected properties.
Since 1953, two tenancy enquiry bureaux have operated within the framework of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs to help the machinery of the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance work smoothly. The principal statutory duties placed on these bureaux are to pro- vide tenancy tribunals with factual information whenever applica- tion is made by a landlord for exclusion from control, or by a tenant for the reduction of rent.
The Tenancy (Prolonged Duration) Ordinance of 1952 gave limited security of tenure to certain tenants of new buildings who entered into verbal tenancy agreements often involving quite