Hong Kong authorities to look at giving some leniency to owners with small illegal structures on homes in urban areas

Authorities will explore whether to exempt property owners in urban areas from having to immediately remove small illegal structures from their homes as part of a review of Hong Kong’s building laws, the development chief has revealed.

The proposed mechanism raised by Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho on Wednesday was previously adopted in 2011 in the New Territories amid rampant abuse of the Buildings Ordinance, with authorities regulating rather than ordering the immediate removal of small unauthorised structures on village houses.

Under the arrangement, homeowners had to declare any illegal small-scale additions, such as enclosed balconies and rooftop structures, to the government before the end of 2012. They also had to hire registered professionals to check the structures every five years until the authorities demanded their removal.

Linn said the government’s current priority was to rectify cases involving serious structural safety risks and nuisance.

“We have already classified some cases as not to be banned [in urban areas]. It doesn’t mean they are legal, we are just not taking immediate action because their scale is small,” Linn said.

She said that while the authorities would still send out advice or warning letters and deploy workers to follow up on them, they would explore if they could be more transparent by adopting the system that applied in the New Territories.

The issue came back into focus in September when a landslide exposed unauthorised structures at four seaside homes at the luxury Redhill Peninsula in Tai Tam.

The government inspected 85 other homes on the estate, with 70 suspected to have illegal structures and 40 of using government land without permission.