A group of flat owners marched angrily to the Legislative Council yesterday after the High Court rejected their application to delay the liquidation of their assets over a $25 million compensation bill.
Representatives of the 136 owners of units in Albert House, Aberdeen, cried and shouted outside the courtroom after Master Simon Kwang Cheok-weung ruled that the liquidation should go ahead and appointed the accountancy firm Kenny Tam.
The owners have paid more than $5 million to victims after the collapse of an illegal fish tank and canopy from the block in 1994, which killed one person and injured eight.
But the Court of First Instance subsequently ruled the owners had to pay an additional $25 million to building landlord Aberdeen Winner Investment as their share of legal costs, interest and compensation not paid after the initial compensation ruling.
Allan Shek Kwok-keung, Southern District councillor, who has been helping the owners, admitted they had been ill-prepared.
'We had no legal representatives or accountants. We also did not know that we should select five representatives to monitor the liquidators,' he said.