HK$71m bill at short-piling estate
Owner of flat tied to 1999 scandal wants Housing Authority to foot unpaid estate management bill
The High Court has reserved judgment in a case centred on whether the Housing Authority is responsible for HK$71 million in outstanding management fees.
The fees derive from unsold subsidised flats at two blocks in Tin Chung Court in Tin Shui Wai taken off the market due to a short-piling scandal in 1999.
Mok Yim-hay, who owns one of the flats in a separate block, is pursuing a lawsuit against the authority to establish its responsibility for the management fees. The Legal Aid Department rejected his application for assistance and Mok sought to have the decision overturned in court yesterday.
In the High Court, Master Dr Harold Leong Kwok-on reserved judgment on the department's decision. Mok said outside court he had not decided what to do if his appeal was rejected.
Mok said that as an individual owner, he would need to shoulder only HK$11,785 of the total, but if the estate's 5,200 residents were forced to pay, the bill amounted to HK$71 million, with some paying more depending on the size of their flat. "If we have to fork out the HK$71 million to settle the management fees, we will be running short of funds to carry out maintenance and repair works," he said.
Tin Chung Court has 15 blocks with more than 6,000 flats. The Home Ownership Scheme project was completed in 1999, but sale of the two blocks was suspended after it was found that contractors had cut corners.
The authority put a batch of 825 flats on the market in March, saying the foundation had been strengthened.
But the management fees between December 1999 and November 2008 for the unsold flats remain unpaid.
The flats were to be sold in 2010 but were held back because of the row over management fees between the government and the owners' committee of the estate.
The Building Management Ordinance states that "the owner for the time being shall, for so long as [a unit] remains unsold, be liable to pay the management expenses".
