Owners ignore orders to fix flats
The Building Department said it would start prosecuting owners of units in the Ma Tau Wai tenement block that was swept by a deadly fire in June, saying they had failed to remove illegal structures as ordered.
The blaze in 111 and 113 Ma Tau Wai Road, which claimed the lives of a pregnant woman, her two young sons and an 18-year-old girl, highlighted the dangers of subdivided flats and prompted the department to pledge to inspect 150 buildings suspected of improper partitioning each year.
The department issued 12 removal orders to various owners on June 30, two weeks after the fire, requiring them to remove illegal structures within 60 days. But only two had complied by yesterday's due date.
Pun Chi-man, a Kowloon City district councillor, said the period was too short as residents did not receive the removal orders until they moved back when electricity was fully restored, 30 days after the fire. He said the Buildings Department should give the residents another 30 days' grace period.
'If they really want to solve the problem, they should not just take action now, but undertake continuous law enforcement,' Pun said. 'They only acted when this particular building burned, but there are so many buildings of the same kind in Hong Kong.'
A department spokesman said work on one removal order was under way, but no work had been carried out on the remaining nine.
The eight-storey building, built in 1957, had 14 approved flats on seven floors. Twelve out of the 14 flats had been sub-divided into a total of 39 units.
The department ordered owners to remove structures including sub-divided cubicles and metal gates that obstructed the means of escape to the rear staircase. Failure to comply with the removal order could lead to a fine of HK$200,000 and imprisonment of one year.
Pun said most of the residents had moved out of the building. Only two to three people were living there.
Kiang Ming-lung, 49, a gardener who lived on the sixth floor when the fire broke out, said he did not know anything about the removal orders as he was only a tenant and had moved out after the fire. He said he never got back in touch with the owner of his unit because the leasing matters were all handled by a property agent.
'Subdivided cubicles have their advantages,' he said. 'They provide temporary shelter for low-income residents. But it would be safer if the government cleared the structures blocking the rear staircase.'
Wu Chun-yee, 35, another tenant who moved out, said the owner of her unit had previously told her he would start the removal work, but she did not know if it had been finished.
The department said it would soon apply for closure orders from the court, arrange for government contractors to carry out the restoration work and then recover the cost from the property owners.
