One week to leave their homes

Shocked residents of a To Kwa Wan tenement building were yesterday trying to come to terms with the possibility that they would have to move out within a week.

The first they knew about it came in the form of a notice posted on the six-storey block at 51 Kai Ming Street yesterday morning, advising them that a closure order would be served by August 30 so that dangerous balconies could be removed.

Lam Po-ching, who is 80, was returning home yesterday morning with her shopping when she saw the news: she would have to leave the apartment where she's lived for nearly 40 years.

Lam lives in the fourth-floor flat with her son and three grandsons. "My eyesight is such a problem, I wouldn't want to leave my flat if they move me to another area," she said, referring to the government plan to relocate residents to temporary housing while the building is closed.

Lam said she had worried about the building being dangerous after metal pillars were installed for support following the collapse of a nearby tenement on Ma Tau Wai Road in 2010, claiming the lives of four residents.

Richfield Realty, a company which buys old buildings to redevelop, approached Lam in 2011 with a HK$4.2 million offer for her 900 sq ft flat. Lam signed an agreement but the sale fell through because the company didn't manage to get the minimum consent needed from flat owners in the building.

One of the enclosed balconies to be demolished, which Lam uses as a room, has a sloping floor and a deep crack is visible in the wall at the edge separating it from the rest of the flat.