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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

I now turn to the management and control of multi-storey buildings. The present situation is that, owners and occupiers of flats in these buildings are left more or less to their own devices. The occupiers find it difficult to force the management to manage and pro- vide proper services for the building. Likewise, the management finds it difficult to enforce payment of monthly contributions by the occupiers. Since proper management depends on due payment of contributions, the situation quickly deteriorates.

I understand that Government now proposes to make legal provi- The idea sion for the voluntary management of multi-storey buildings. is good, but it does not go far enough. There must be an element of compulsion in the case of poorly managed buildings. These are likely to be large, consisting of four or five hundred or even more units. The flats are usually small and the occupiers not too well off. If such a building is badly run at present, who among the owners or occupiers will dare to take over, and be saddled with the burden of management? If they did, they would not even be able to call a meeting of owners to discuss matters, without hiring a large assembly hall, such as our City Hall Theatre.

To remedy this situation, Government must take some positive action. The owners must be compelled to appoint a Manager or a Management Committee, who will be legally responsible to manage the building properly. The appointment of such a Committee must be compulsory. If the owners need not appoint a Management Com- mittee, then the result will be that the worst managed buildings will not be improvde while well managed buildings will be made better.

The Management Committee must be given sufficient powers to enforce payment of contributions. This may be done in various ways. One would be to empower a Management Committee to register a Charge at the Land Office against the title of the flat owned by the defaulting owner. This will have the effect of stopping any dealing with the flat, unless the amount of the contribution has been paid and the Charge cleared. The Management Committee could also be given power to sell, if the contribution in default exceeded a certain amount, or exceeded a certain period of time.

Another possibility is to give the Management Committee power to distrain on the goods of the occupiers of the flat, in the same way that a landlord has the power to do if his tenants fail to pay him rent. This, perhaps, may go too far and the position is complicated by the fact that the occupier may not be the defaulting owner himself but an innocent tenant. If the Tenancy Agreement provides that the tenant pays the Management Fees, then the Management Committee should be empowered to collect contributions direct from the tenant, but if

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the Tenancy Agreement provides that the landlord should pay this fee, and he fails to do so, the tenant should be allowed to pay this for him and deduct the amount from his next payment of rent.

To ensure that the Management Committee perform the tasks for which they are legally responsible, Government should exercise stricter supervision and should not hesitate to issue summonses against the Management Committee if nuisances are found in the common parts of the building or if there are any other irregularities or breach of regula- tions. The owners and occupiers will also have a remedy against the Management Committee by dismissing them on just cause, or not renewing their appointment at the Annual General Meeting. It would be too optimistic to think that such measures would completely change the situation over-night, so that some of the huge buildings, which at present are in a filthy state, will turn over-night into ideal homes, but at least, it will be a step in the right direction, and with steadily rising standards and more health education, the day will come, when we no longer need be ashamed of these huge tenement blocks.

This leads me to the subject of Urban Renewal. The Report of the Working Party on Slum Clearance was published more than two years ago. Up to now, no action has been taken by Government, at least, no slums have been cleared which is what I mean by action. Here, I would utter a plea for urgency. As we all know, business con- ditions have improved greatly in the last few months. The property market can by no means be said to be booming, but at least, it is definitely on the upward trend. This is the time for us to commence the task of Urban Renewal.

Private development must inevitably play a large part in conjunc- tion with Government or Government aided housing; whether in the form of the Housing Authority or in some other form. Post-war building in Hong Kong, whether Government aided or private, has made tremendous strides. There is probably a higher percentage of people living in post-war buildings in Hong Kong than in any other major city in the world.

Unfortunately, a good deal of this has taken place in the case of Government building, on new sites on the fringes of the Urban Area. In the case of private development, the developers have concentrated more on districts with better housing rather than on the worst slums. In some cases, large post-war buildings over ten storeys in height have been demolished to make way for even taller buildings, while the oldest slums remain almost untouched. This is so for obvious commercial reasons. Who would want to live in a new building if it is surrounded by slums? To carry out Urban Renewal requires Government action,

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