Industrial unit owners in Hong Kong at mercy of high maintenance charges
Tender documents for maintenance work often withheld, stopping owners from seeking advice
Owners of industrial units should be wary of possible irregularities in the bidding of maintenance projects as they may end up paying unreasonably high charges, a concern group has warned, after a string of disputes at residential buildings in recent years.
Co-owners of factory buildings had lodged 10 complaints to the Property Owners' Alliance Against Bid Rigging in the past three months alone - more than the six or seven cases in the whole of last year.
The depth of the problem drove two industrial unit owners to join the group's media conference for the first time, to make public their experiences.
"Industrial property owners can be even more vulnerable than flat owners in this regard because it is difficult for them to join forces," alliance spokesman Chong Wing-fai said yesterday.
"Many of them just keep the units to earn rent and they do not see one another around."
Another spokesman, Lam Cheuk-ting, added: "Some industrial building units have been converted into subdivided flats [illegally] and their owners may not come forward to complain even when they see something wrong, because they are afraid they themselves may become the ones prosecuted."