The previous owner and occupier of Leung Chun-ying's property on The Peak gave a firm hint yesterday that a newspaper report was correct in claiming that the chief executive-elect had built an illegal trellis after he moved in.
The Chief Executive-Elect's Office had said earlier that the trellis existed beforehand, and Leung said he replaced it with a glass canopy when he found the wood had rotted.
Lau Yiu-chu, who is in his 80s and whose company, Housing Development, sold the Peel Rise property to Leung in 2000, did confirm that a 240 sq ft basement, which the Buildings Department says is illegal, was in place when he sold the home.
He was then pressed on the other five structures one by one in a telephone interview with Commercial Radio. On the trellis, he said: 'If I told you it did [exist when I sold it], I would be telling a lie, so I won't say so.
'But if I said it didn't, it would do harm to someone, so I won't say that either.'
He was referring to official aerial pictures published by Ming Pao Daily this week, which the newspaper said showed that the trellis did not exist a month before Leung bought the house in 1999.
On a car park cover, Lau said he did use a cover of some sort but couldn't remember exactly what.