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LCQ2: Structural Safety Guarantee for TPS estates
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    Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and an oral reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, in the Legislative Council today (March 12):


Question:

    I earlier received complaints from flat owners of the Hong Kong Housing Authority's ("HA") Tenants Purchase Scheme ("TPS") that the seven-year Structural Safety Guarantee ("SSG") provided by HA for their flats will expire soon, but the buildings in their estates still have problems of exposed reinforcement steel and leaking drainage pipes.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether HA, as the principal owner of TPS estates, will, before the SSG period expires, take the initiative in inspecting the buildings concerned and carrying out repairs for those with such a need; if it will not, of the reasons for that;

(b) given that the Housing Department has indicated to me that the HA representatives sitting on the management committees ("MCs") of the owners¡¦ corporations ("OCs") of TPS estates "will, as far as possible, encourage the owners to place the overall interests of the estates concerned above all else, so as to protect the interests of all owners", of the specific role played by such representatives (whether it includes proposing, on behalf of tenants and other OC members who are not members of MCs, at meetings of OCs that structural maintenance works be conducted for the buildings concerned as well as closely monitoring the quality and effectiveness of the relevant repair works); and

(c) in the past 10 years, of the items in respect of which major or estate-wide maintenance works for TPS estates had been conducted by HA within the above SSG period, the number of households which benefited from such works and the criteria for deciding to conduct such works?

Reply:

Madam President,

    The Housing Authority (HA) has provided a seven-year Structural Safety Guarantee (SSG) for all estates sold under the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS).  During the guarantee period, the HA is responsible for all structural repair and maintenance works relating to structural components such as columns, beams, walls and floor slabs, including repair works for spalling and cracking, in order to ensure the overall structural integrity of the buildings.  During the guarantee period, TPS owners are responsible for non-structural repair works in their estates.  When the HA sold the TPS flats, it made a one-off contribution equivalent to $14,000 per residential unit to a Maintenance Fund for each TPS estate to meet the expenses of post-sale maintenance works such as those in common areas including corridors, roofs and external walls of buildings, and replacement of water pipes, etc.

    My reply to the three-part question is as follows :

(a) Prior to the sale of all TPS estates, the HA carried out comprehensive investigation and completed all necessary structural and non-structural repair works including repairs for concrete spalling, water seepage through windows and escalators.  The HA also invited residents to report the defects inside their flats in order to arrange appropriate repairs before the sale.  As a result, all TPS estates were sold in good condition.  Generally speaking, there would be no need for large-scale structural repair works in these estates in the short term.

    As in the case of private properties, TPS estates are managed by owners¡¦ corporations (OCs) which hire management companies to deal with daily estate management.  Whether structural investigation is required for individual estates is for the OCs to decide taking into account the actual need.  The management companies have the responsibility to monitor the overall conditions of the buildings (especially the common areas), report to the OCs in a timely manner and recommend necessary structural investigation and maintenance.  Through the work of the OCs and regular meetings of their management committees, the HA and the other owners jointly supervise and monitor the work of the management companies and assess the need for structural investigation and repair works where necessary, in order to ensure that the overall conditions of the buildings are satisfactory.

    In addition, as a major owner in the TPS estates, the HA monitors the conditions of the unsold flats and common areas of the buildings through proactive investigation under the Total Maintenance Scheme, reports from tenants on defects identified inside their flats and normal inspections, and takes appropriate follow-up actions.  If other owners have identified any problems suspected to be related to building structure during the seven-year SSG period, they may inform the Housing Department through the management companies for follow-up and maintenance.  Through participation in regular meetings of the OCs and their management committees, the representatives of the HA will also remind the owners to report relevant repair items before the expiry of the SSG period.

(b) As owner of the unsold flats, the HA appoints representatives to serve as members of the management committees of the OCs.  The representatives of the HA attend meetings of the management committees and general meetings, participate in estate management work together with other owners including conducting necessary maintenance works and monitoring the quality and effectiveness of maintenance works contractors, and exercise their voting rights when necessary, e.g. when appointing contractors in some important works projects.  The representatives of the HA participate in the OCs¡¦ work with the overall interests of the estate as their overriding consideration, and provide advice to the OCs by drawing on the HA¡¦s experience in estate management.  The HA also listens to the views of the tenants on estate management and reflects them to the OCs as appropriate, and encourages the OCs and the management companies to maintain communication with the tenants.

(c) Under the criteria as stated above, the HA is responsible for all structural repair and maintenance works relating to structural components during the SSG period.  As at January 2008, the HA has completed about 6 500 maintenance works items inside the flats and in the common areas of the estates under the seven-year SSG, most of which were repairs for spalling and wall cracking.  As the HA has conducted comprehensive structural investigation and maintenance before the sale of the TPS estates, the estates are in good condition and there was no need for any major estate-wide maintenance works in any of the TPS estates in the past decade.

Ends/Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:43

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