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A spokesman for the Buildings Department (BD) said that the department will issue an advisory letter to the owner of House 4 and House 5 at No 4 Peel Rise today (June 22), advising him to rectify the irregularities in his properties as soon as possible. The BD will arrange to issue removal orders in an orderly manner to the owner if he is not able to appoint registered professionals or contractors to commence the rectification works within the specified period of 30 days.
The buildings involved are located at No 4 Peel Rise, and the occupation permit was issued in 1992. The BD received an enquiry in the afternoon on the day before yesterday (June 20) on a structure erected in the garden of House 5. The BD subsequently learnt from the media report yesterday (June 21) that the case involved the Chief Executive-elect. In accordance with the established procedures for handling cases involving senior government officials and celebrities, staff of the BD visited the subject building yesterday morning for site inspection. In response to the media report today on a structure suspected as having been illegally erected at House 4, the BD deployed its staff to inspect the building concerned this morning. With the co-operation of the owner, staff of the BD completed the two inspections smoothly and preliminarily checked against the approved building plans, and are now processing the information gathered.
According to the results of the inspections, the structure erected in the garden of House 5 and mentioned in the media report had been removed. However, based on the photographs included in the media report and after checking the relevant approved building plans, the BD found that the Department had not received any applications relating to the structure concerned, and was able to confirm that the structure was an unauthorised building works (UBW). As the owner has already removed the UBW on a voluntary basis, under the usual practice there is no longer a need for the BD to issue advisory letters or removal orders on the concerned UBW.
The spokesman also said that, in addition to inspecting the two structures reported by the press, staff of the BD also carried out an inspection of the exterior of the two buildings. Based on the results of the two inspections, the BD concluded that the structure of the two buildings was still safe in general. However, staff of the BD were able to identify the following UBWs in the two premises:
House 4:
- a trellis that was erected in the garden and reported by the press on June 22. The trellis has a width of about 6 metres and a depth of about 1m;
- a structure erected next to the trellis, with an area of about 2m by 2m and about 2.5m in height; and
- a metal gate erected at the access road near the house
House 5:
- the parking space on the ground floor was enclosed and a cover was erected; and
- the location beneath the parking space and at the garden level was altered into a floor space with an area of about 6.4m by 3.5m and a height ranging from about 1.7m to 2m.
In accordance with the usual procedures, the BD will issue an advisory letter to the owner, advising him to rectify the above irregularities as soon as possible. Under the prevailing enforcement policy, UBWs located at the exterior of buildings (in particular those situated on the roofs or rooftops, or in yards or lanes) are classified as "actionable" items. As such, among the UBWs listed above and with the exception of the metal gate near House 4, all the other four remaining UBWs belong to the "actionable" category. The BD will issue removal orders in an orderly manner to the owner if he is not able to appoint registered professionals or contractors to commence the rectification works within the specified period of 30 days.
Apart from the above follow-up actions being taken in light of the preliminary results of the inspections, the BD will also continue to process and analyse the information gathered from the inspections to decide on the next course of action.
Ends/Friday, June 22, 2012
Issued at HKT 19:38
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