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About 1,500 removal orders issued
The Control and Enforcement Division of the Buildings Department has served a total of 1,488 orders from January to April this year for the removal of unauthorised building works, including 77 cases for removal of illegál rooftop structures.
The Assistant Director/Control of the department, Mr Lok Che-leung, said the department had received 2,527 complaints and its staff had carried out 6,765 inspection during the same period.
Last year, a total of 4,890 orders were issued following 7,596 complaints received. Of these complaints, with about 1,600 or 20 per cent were on illegal rooftop
structures.
As a result, a total of 232 illegal rooftop structures were demolished with 80 per cent of these structures demolished by the owners themselves.
Illegal rooftop structures are common in old urban areas like Central and Western districts, North Point and Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island; Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok and Kwun Tong in Kowloon; and Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing in the New Territories.
Contrary to popular belief, Mr Lok said, rooftop illegal structures formed but one among the many categories of unauthorised building works tackled by the department.
Any building works carried out to any part of a building without the prior approval and consent of the Building Authority are defined as unauthorised building works and have to be demolished. Mr Lok said.
However, new unauthorised building works, work-in-progress cases, and unauthorised building works causing fire, health or structural hazard will be awarded high priority status requiring their removal.
"Our prime concern is building safety," he said. "Once an unauthorised building work of high priority is identified, an order will be issued under Buildings Ordinance Section 24 prescribing the date and the removal of the specified works by the building owner."