Residents face pressure tactics
Residents of old buildings still face various property acquisition tactics, although a watchdog in August banned estate agents from pressuring them to move out. The Estate Agents Authority set out 29 rules against tactics such as displaying large banners and harassing owners by phone.
Despite this, banners trumpeting acquisitions are seen in many rundown areas of the city. Small red logos are displayed in the windows of some flats in an old building in King's Road, Quarry Bay, indicating the flats were bought by Richfield Realty. A large logo is displayed near the entrance. Piles of rubbish lie unattended at the entrance, and the staircase is in darkness. Doors of some vacant flats are left open.
A tenant, who has lived in the building for more than 10 years and refused to disclose his identity, said some red banners had been removed but some electrical cables had been cut two months ago.
'I am not saying they forced us to leave. But it has some psychological effect on us... When most people left, they put up red banners and cut out this and that.'
He said security had been very bad since the acquisition took place. Some electrical appliances in vacant flats went missing.
The owner of the man's flat had sold it and the man was to move soon.
A long red banner is displayed outside another old building in Morrison Hill Road, Wan Chai, but does not bear an agent's logo. A tenant said that although he did not know which agent had put up the banner, it just put pressure on him to move out. 'There is no use complaining. We are just tenants,' he said.
Richfield Realty project director Elwyn Chan Chi-ling, who specialises in the acquisition and sale of old buildings to developers, said all the banners were put up with owners' written consent and the agent was gradually removing the banners amid public concern.
He said it was impossible for them to cut electrical cables to force residents out, and there were regular security patrols in most of their acquired buildings.
The watchdog last year received seven complaints accusing agents of malpractice in acquiring old buildings. They included complaints of agents asking owners to sign sales contracts without all the blanks filled in, agents providing incorrect information on the progress of acquisition, and agents misleading owners into selling their flats below the market price. It has received five complaints in the past two months, but none involves banners being hung.
Wong Ho-yin, an activist who runs an alliance of minority owners affected by compulsory sales, said agents, to abide by the authority's guidelines, asked people selling flats to agree in the sales contract to putting up banners, as a condition of sale. If no one else voiced objections to the authority, the banners would be able to stay.
