duties relate to cleansing and hawker operations, enforcement of tenancy conditions, chasing of rent, addition to households of new family members and deletion of those who move away, relief of over- crowding, and other duties.
52. Despite the efforts of the block officers, improvement in rent office layout and financial assistance from welfare agencies and the Public Assistance Scheme, monthly arrears in rent show a slight increase from 7.6% at the beginning of the year to 8.0% at the end.
53. To assist the block officers to cope effectively with all these duties, a new grade of Estate Caretakers was introduced as a pilot scheme to take over the more routine duties. This scheme, which was introduced for new blocks taken over during the year, has resulted in a considerable improvement in basic management.
54. In contrast with normal commercial practice, there is no formal lease between landlord and tenant; letting of tenancies is governed by Section 28 of the Resettlement Ordinance. Tenants are issued with a tenancy card listing a number of basic conditions which they are expected to observe under pain of eviction. However, as most resettled squatters regard their accommodation as some form of compensation for their demolished structure, it is difficult to build up a satisfactory landlord/ tenant relationship and the enforcement of tenancy conditions requires tact and patience. Warning letters, final warnings and finally termination of tenancy and eviction notices are issued (sec Appendix 6). Difficult cases are referred to the Assistant Resettlement Officer in charge, and sometimes to the Group Resettlement Officer, Resettlement Depart- ment Headquarters, and, ultimately, to the Select Committee.
55. During the year 9 completed blocks were taken over from the Public Works Department. The estate staff inspect each individual room and check that fittings are in order, before accepting the keys. The blocks are then locked and patrolled. Two weeks before the day of clearance, the Clearance Sub-Division sends lists of families to the Resettlement Officer in charge of the estate, and the latter allocates rooms of suitable sizes for each family, as far as possible filling up the block by floors from bottom to top. On pre-arranged days groups of 36 families arrive at the estate office where they are fully briefed on tenancy conditions, pay the first month's rent, water and electricity deposits, receive their keys and are shown their new rooms by the block caretaker.
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