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The Home Affairs Department (HAD) today (February 25) held a building management workshop to commend 153 Resident Liaison Ambassadors (RLAs) engaged in owners' corporations (OCs) and graduates of the Advanced LEAD Programme for their active participation in building management. A seminar was also arranged to further enhance their knowledge in building maintenance.
Addressing the ceremony, the Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Raymond Young, said proper management and timely maintenance are key to ensuring building safety and a comfortable living environment. The HAD has all along been encouraging owners and residents to take part in the management of their buildings, and has adopted a multi-pronged approach to help them enhance building management standards.
He pointed out that in collaboration with the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, the HAD will launch the "AP Easy" Building Maintenance Advisory Service Scheme in April this year for OCs that intend to carry out large-scale maintenance projects. The aim is to offer professional and tailor-made advice and support services to assist them in engaging authorised persons/consultants to carry out such works.
He added that the HAD commissioned professional property management companies (PMCs) to assist "three-nil" buildings in forming OCs and conducting building maintenance projects under the Building Management Professional Advisory Service Scheme three years ago. Since the Scheme has achieved far more than expected, a new phase of the Scheme will be rolled out in April this year to provide owners with one-stop advice and support services, including assistance in recruiting RLAs.
At the ceremony, Mr Young commended the RLAs for dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to managing their own buildings. Not only had they liaised with and engaged fellow residents to discuss building management matters, they had also assisted the buildings in forming OCs and became the management committee (MC) members themselves. He also gave applause to graduates of the Advanced LEAD Programme for their passion in learning, believing that they could put into practice the knowledge acquired in building management work.
The HAD has been recruiting owners and tenants living in old buildings without any form of management as RLAs. The RLAs on the one hand help contact residents for meetings to discuss and handle routine building management matters, and on the other hand assist these buildings in forming OCs to facilitate effective building management in the long run. Since the launch of the RLA Scheme in November in 2011, the HAD has recruited over 1 000 ambassadors and helped 68 old buildings to form OCs.
The Advanced LEAD Programme is designed specifically for the MC members of the OCs that have graduated from the LEAD Programme with a view to further enhancing their knowledge of building management, and enabling them to take up the duty of community tutors more effectively in promoting good building management in the future. They also share their experiences with other OCs and owners from time to time and learn from each other.
For more effective building management, the workshop today also included a seminar on building management, in which a lawyer was invited to explain the cases and relevant laws and regulations in relation to building maintenance and renovations. Moreover, a representative from the Hong Kong Police Force was invited to brief attendants on the RenoSafe Scheme.
Ends/Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Issued at HKT 20:55
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