Exclusive | Can Hong Kong ever quash the problem of homeowners building unauthorised structures on their expensive properties?
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In Pan Chung Village, a grey-walled multi-clan enclave opposite the busy Tai Po Hui market, officers once discovered a four-storey house being built without official approval.
Under the dubbed small-house policy enacted during British colonial rule, adult male indigenous villagers are allowed to erect a house of up to 700 sq ft per floor on their own land within a recognised New Territories village without having to pay a land-use conversion fee. But each house can go up to three storeys only.
A four-storey house was therefore bound to raise eyebrows.
The Buildings Department immediately issued a removal order requiring the two co-owners to demolish the building. The pair ignored the letter, and went on to build another four-storey house next to the unauthorised property, again without seeking prior official permission.
They built the first house in 2009. It took another seven years before the law caught up with the two co-owners. In 2016, they were slapped with a suspended sentence of two months’ imprisonment and fined HK$149,400 (US$19,100), before being thrown behind bars the next year for their repeated snubbing of the removal orders.
