A shopkeeping family locked in a legal row with the Housing Department yesterday vowed to keep their store in a Shau Kei Wan public housing estate open.
Kong Fung Tai-hoo, 38, has been running her frozen food store in Yiu Tung Shopping Centre without permission for more than three months.
She said she was prepared for a court battle with the department, which filed a writ against her store on Monday.
The writ claimed that her husband, Kong Leung, had refused to cease operation or enter a short-term licensing agreement with the department after the centre's previous management company, Guardian Property Management Ltd, decided to cut short the store operator's contract with the housing body.
The mother-of-two said the Housing Department had reassessed their rent after the company had ceased to manage the centre - resulting in an increase from the present $7,000 to $15,000.
The reassessed level is believed to serve as an 'indicator' for the new management firm when it takes over the centre next month.
'Only 15 days after we started our business, we were told our contract had to be scrapped. What's wrong with it? We invested all our savings in the store. Then all of a sudden we have to face an unexpected high rent increase,' said Mrs Kong.
