ENG-1966 — Page 190

LAND AND HOUSING

143

Since 1953 two tenancy inquiry 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 provide tenancy tribunals with factual information whenever application is made by a landlord for exclusion from control, or by a tenant for reduction of rent. The bureaux also perform a wide range of extra-statutory duties connected with landlord and tenant legislation. Apart from this, the bureaux are responsible for the disbursement of ex gratia advances by the government of statutory compensation under the Demolished Buildings (Redevelop- ment of Sites) Ordinance 1963 and payable by landlords to occupants of pre-war dangerous buildings condemned and closed by the Building Authority. The scheme for such interest-free cash advances, which came into operation in November 1964, was devised as an administrative measure to help tenants of dangerous buildings to face multiple difficulties incurred as a result of their being evicted from their homes and usual ways of living at very short or-in cases of emergency-no prior notice. With their compensation tenants can build a hut in a resite area or use part of the money as a rent advance to obtain priority accommodation in a resettlement estate. Loans in 1966 for this purpose totalled $12,997,154.

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 substantial lump sum payments. In 1963 the three-year security under this ordinance was extended to five years for new tenancies commencing after 1st July 1963. Increases in rents in 1961 and in the early part of 1962 resulted in the enactment of the Tenancy (Notice of Termina- tion) Ordinance, which came into force on 14th April 1962. Because many tenancies are monthly on a word of mouth basis, this ordin- ance (with certain exceptions) extended the period required for termination of domestic and business tenancies to six months' written notice. The ordinance was amended in October 1962 so that tenancies affected by it enjoyed general security of tenure up to 30th June 1963. Domestic tenancies were given further security of tenure for two years from 1st July 1963 following enactment of the 1963 Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Ordinance, but for business premises general security of tenure-apart from