If owners remove tenants to grab all the cash, compensation could be restricted The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) is reviewing its policies to deter flat-owners from removing their tenants in soon-to-be-developed areas so they can grab all the compensation. It says only minimum compensation may be paid. Tenants of a 40-year-old Kwun Tong property have complained they are being forced out by its owner, a company controlled by tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung - a move made possible by a recent amendment to the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance. The tenants were told last month their leases would be terminated in a year. The compensation payable for resuming Yue Man Mansion - which is on the URA's priority list for renewal - will all go to the owner if there are no tenants. Yue Man tenant Amy Wong Sau-ping said they would receive nothing from the URA if Mr Fok succeeded in moving them out. 'I have lived in this flat for almost 40 years. Since hearing about the plan of the Land Development Corporation to take over our building for redevelopment, I have been waiting over a decade hoping that we will have reasonable compensation to resettle elsewhere,' she said. 'I discussed my worries with the URA officials a few times right before the legislation was amended. But they just said that the owner would not be so unreasonable. And now it has really happened,' she said. Ms Wong is paying $2,000 a month for her 500 sq ft flat. But she said she would have to pay double that amount for a flat of the same condition if she had to move. The case, which affects more than 70 households, is the first to emerge since the amendment was passed in July. Under the old legislation, tenants could refuse to move out after their leases expired as long as they continued paying market rent and did not breach the tenancy agreement. Landlords could only take back the property for their own use or for redevelopment. But the amendment allows landlords to take the property back as long as a 12-month grace period is provided for leases signed before the change. A spokesman for the URA said it was reviewing its policy on compensation to tenants in light of the amendment. 'We will examine sympathetically cases where tenants are required to leave under the new rules ... We are considering guidelines for such cases,' he said. 'The URA reserves the right not to pay [supplementary] ex gratia allowances to property owners or to tenants who have moved in to replace the original tenants, if we believe the original tenants have been required to move out [so] the owners [can] obtain higher payments.' Kowloon East legislator Fred Li Wah-ming welcomed the URA's decision. 'The problem of Yue Man will emerge again and again if no changes are made to its compensation policies,' he said.
