3
Friday, September 15, 1972
The administrative procedures and methods of inspection by the Public Works Department are adequate to ensure that the provisions of the Buildings Ordinance relating to the obtaining of occupation permits are properly enforced.
Because of a shortage of staff the procedures and methods are not adequate to cope with unauthorised
changes of use after the issue of an occupation permit.
In the light of this, the Committee recommended that consideration be
given to devising means of improving the reliability of certificates signed by
authorised architects and registered contractors.
It also said that a Control and Enforcement Section of the Buildings
Ordinance Office should be established and a programme of inspections devised
so that unauthorised changes of use after the issue of an occupation permit
could be detected and dealt with at an early stage.
Legislation
The Government spokesman, commenting on the second part of the report,
said that these recommendations had been accepted and "legislation is now being
prepared which will enable: the Building Authority to order a person responsible
for carrying out dangerous or potentially dangerous building works to remedy the
situation.
"If the order is not complied with, the Building Authority will be
able to remedy the situation and recover the cost from the developer.
"Steps are also being taken to raise substantially the penalties for
certain serious offenses, including the use of defective materials and deviation
from approved plans. It is also proposed to consider the introduction of
penalties for continuing offences under the Ordinance."
I
The control