Lands Department continues to take enforcement action against lease breaches in industrial buildings
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As of September 28, DLOs have inspected a total of 92 premises, which are scattered across 15 industrial buildings, suspected to be targeted for risk-based enforcement action. Progress of follow-up actions on the 92 cases is as follows:
* 27 cases were confirmed to have breached the uses specified in the lease. The DLOs concerned have issued warning letters to the owners of these industrial building units requiring them to rectify the breach of uses within 14 days;
* There are 46 cases in which the owners had rectified the breach of uses before the warning letter was issued;
* 19 cases required further investigation.
Out of the 27 cases with warning letters issued, there are 26 cases in which the warning period has expired, and of these 26 cases with expiry of the warning period, 24 cases have rectified the breach before expiry of the warning period, while the remaining two cases have proved the rectification of the breach before the completion of the re-entry procedures by the LandsD, and as a result, there was no need for the department to continue its re-entry action.
The above-mentioned 27 confirmed breach cases involve uses including learning centres, places of entertainment/recreation, shops and religious gathering places. The spokesman said that in respect of the cases with the breach of uses rectified, the DLO concerned will conduct surprise inspections, and swiftly take decisive enforcement action against cases with repeated breaches by commencing the procedures to re-enter the units in breach of the leases without further warning/notice.
The spokesman added that the above figures on rectification show that with the risk-based enforcement action taken, owners of industrial building units generally took a serious view of the department's action of issuing warning letters.
The spokesman further reminded members of the public that the information on the premises issued with DGLs by the FSD is updated from time to time. If the use in breach of the lease falls within the category which attracts flow of people, while other premises in the same industrial building are issued with DGLs, the LandsD will escalate its enforcement action and deal with the case stringently by issuing warning letters to the owners of these industrial building units requiring rectification of the breach of uses within 14 days. Information on industrial buildings with premises which have been issued with DGLs by the FSD has been uploaded on the websites of the FSD and the LandsD. In other words, the LandsD's first round of enforcement action is not confined to cases with the breach of uses attracting members of the public to the units in the above-mentioned 15 industrial buildings. Those who patronised industrial building premises which are in breach of lease conditions in the past should also stop doing so for their own safety and that of their family members.
Ends/Thursday, September 29, 2016
Issued at HKT 19:29
Issued at HKT 19:29
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