New Territories power brokers the Heung Yee Kuk will 'definitely' launch a judicial review when villagers receive the first demolition orders under a new policy on illegal structures which kicks in today.
That was the promise from kuk vice-chairman Cheung Hok-ming as building officers prepare to inspect nine villages in the New Territories with the highest numbers of complaints.
They will look for 'severe' breaches of the standard three-level format permitted for village houses, including buildings with four, five or even six storeys.
The crackdown was announced in May last year, 15 years after the Ombudsman first criticised the government for turning a blind eye to illegal construction in the New Territories.
Cheung said yesterday that the kuk was ready to pursue several cases through the courts when villagers start to receive demolition orders to remove the extra storeys.
These would involve villagers living on so-called 'block government leases' - land confiscated and then re-granted by the colonial British administration in 1905. The kuk, which represents Hong Kong's indigenous villagers, says these houses should be exempt because these leases did not stipulate a height limit and they were part of traditional rights protected by the Basic Law.
The government says the exemption does not include homes built after 1961, when a small-house policy took effect.