Industrial housing rental housing to promote criminal crime owners landlord brokerage to be responsible for the exclusion of vulnerable passengers

The rent in Hong Kong is expensive, and even if the living environment is poor, it attracts many grassroots people to rent, and in recent years, it has spread to the industrial and commercial units. The Development Bureau yesterday proposed to amend the legislation to criminalize the sale of residential buildings as a criminal offense and to allow others to allow property owners or tenants of illegal residential purposes to be subject to criminal sanctions. If residents are only living in industrial buildings, Be exempted. The Council also proposes to empower the Buildings Department staff to apply to the court for a warrant when they believe that there is a residential building in the building. Some Members have criticized the amendment for a temporary solution and worried that rents in Hong Kong will rise.

Development Board: Residential Buildings or Fire Rescue

According to the data released by the Census and Statistics Department in 2015, there are 86,400 housing units (sub-flats) in Hong Kong, of which about 195,500 are living in housing estates. The Government said in 2011 that there were about 3,000 residents of industrial buildings in Hong Kong. Community organizations estimated that there were about 10,000 residents of industrial buildings. The HKTB pointed out that the safety risk in residential buildings is higher than that of residential buildings. In the event of fire, it will take more time to escape. The building units will be converted into residential use. Their escape routes and building fire- May hinder the firefighters in the fire when the rescue operation.

Since 2012, the Buildings Department has stepped up enforcement work on industrial and commercial use for illegal living through a series of large-scale operations. As at the end of 2016, 118 target buildings had been examined on a large scale and 117 were found for use in residential buildings in 26 buildings. Of the 232 statutory orders issued, 192 were kept and were not Statutory order of 30 criminal prosecutions.

The Development Bureau yesterday mentioned in the paper submitted to the Legislative Council Panel on Development that in order to enhance the deterrent effect, it is necessary to add new criminal offenses under the Buildings Ordinance, to allow others to use or knowingly to make illegal construction (Such as a landlord), the person in charge, etc., and any person who assists and incites the owner (such as a real estate broker) to allow others to use the industrial building unit for illegal domestic use, Sanctions. In view of the fact that there are many disadvantaged groups living in industrial buildings alone, the Development Bureau proposes to exempt such persons. If they do not have sub-leases for residential use, they will be exempt from the new criminal offenses unless they are owners of the unit concerned.

Advocate the right to apply directly to the unit

In order to enable the Buildings Department to implement the new criminal offenses, the Council proposes to empower the Buildings Department staff to apply to the court for a warrant to direct access to and search for premises if they reasonably believe that industrial and commercial units are used for illegal employment If the existing legislation is required to repeat the visit and refused to enter the case to apply for a warrant. The Administration plans to submit amendments to the Legislative Council by the end of this year.

Members are afraid to push up rents

Members of the Legislative Council and Vice Chairman of the Housing Authority, Mr Yoon Kau Kwan, said that the public housing or housing construction was due to inadequate public housing and the length of waiting for public housing. The rents of private flats were high and forced to stay in housing. The owners of the residents in a short time to drive away, the original residential buildings of the public back to other housing market, will lead to short supply, the emergence of  room , rent expensive expensive” situation, the proposed government to build enough public housing , To solve the problem of housing in Hong Kong, otherwise the amendment is a temporary solution.