A flower shop in Graham Street was demolished yesterday, but the tenant will not receive any compensation because she had been unaware that she was paying rent for a piece of illegally occupied government land.
The flower shop, on the footpath next to the Wing Woo grocery shop at the intersection of Graham and Wellington streets, had its last morning of business before it was dismantled in a joint operation by the Buildings Department, Lands Department, and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
A Lands Department spokeswoman said it did not plan to follow up on who charged the shop owner rent illegally because it was a 'personal dispute'. Under the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, there was nothing the department could do in such a scenario, she said.
Tenant May Ng, in her 40s, said she had not known the shop was on government land until Urban Renewal Authority staff told her in May last year that she was not eligible for redevelopment compensation.
Because of her illegal occupation of government land, the Lands Department told Ng early last month that if she did not close the shop by last Friday the department would demolish it on September 28.
Ng, the breadwinner of her family, tried defending her shop yesterday before yielding to government officers in the afternoon. Stock was left outside the closed door of the grocery shop, in the rain.