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Following is a question by the Hon Ho Chun-yan and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (December 4):

Question:

Regarding those cases in which Notices-To-Quit were issued by the Housing Department ("HD") to recover public rental housing flats from residents who had defaulted on rental payments, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the rate of default on rental payments, the number of Notices-To-Quit issued due to such default and the number of flats eventually recovered, in each quarter of the past three years;

(b) of its procedures for handling residents' appeals against Notices-To-Quit;

(c) whether HD has discretionary power to handle those default cases with special circumstances (such as cases in which the tenants, who have cleared all outstanding rent arrears on receipt of the Notices-To-Quit and the tenancies are subsequently reinstated, subsequently default on rental payments again); and of the details of the guidelines issued by HD to its staff in handling these cases; and

(d) whether HD will, given the present economic downturn, consider relaxing the guidelines mentioned in (c) so that HD can have more discretionary power in handling the cases concerned?

Reply:

Madam President,

My reply to the four-part question is as follows -

(a) Most tenants who fail to pay rent on time will subsequently do so upon Housing Department's warnings or provision of necessary assistance. The annual rent default rates are calculated on the basis of the number of notices-to-quit issued. Quarterly statistics on the number of notices-to-quit issued due to rent default, annual rent default rates calculated on the basis of notices-to-quit issued and the number of flats eventually recovered every year in the past three years are set out at the Annex.

(b) Tenants defaulting on rent who are issued with notices-to-quit may appeal within 15 days. On receipt of an appeal, the secretariat of the independent Appeal Panel will arrange hearing. If the tenant concerned has cleared all rent arrears before termination of tenancy and has undertaken to pay rent on time in future, the Housing Department would usually exercise discretion to cancel the notice-to-quit and inform the Appeal Panel secretariat that the case has been satisfactorily resolved without the need for hearing. However, for tenants who fail to settle the rent arrears before termination of tenancies, the Appeal Panel secretariat will continue to arrange hearings, which normally takes three to four months.

At the appeal hearing, Housing Department's representative and the tenant are given ample opportunity to present their cases and advance their arguments. After understanding the actual circumstances and any special reasons leading to rent default, the Appeal Panel will consider the case and reach its judgements independently.

(c) Before issue of notice-to-quit, the Housing Department will first try to understand the reasons of rent default and would exercise flexibility in handling tenants beset with special circumstances. If a tenant encounters economic difficulties, if all household members are elderly, or if there are changes in his family conditions and so on, provided he is not a habitual rent defaulter, Housing Department staff would consider exercising discretion to postpone issue of notice-to-quit and render assistance as appropriate, such as suggesting the tenant to apply for 50 per cent rent reduction under the Housing Authority's Rent Assistance Scheme. No written guidelines had been issued on these discretionary arrangements, although in practice they had all along been used by housing estate management staff.

(d) In view of economic downturn, the Housing Department has recently reviewed the procedures for handling rent default cases with a view to building in a greater measure of flexibility. New guidelines have been promulgated to clearly set out the arrangements for handling and assisting families in genuine difficulties. For families in rent arrears due to economic difficulties or special circumstances, the Housing Department would consult the Social Welfare Department instead of issuing notices-to-quit immediately.

In addition, before enforcing a notice-to-quit confirmed by the Appeal Panel, if there are changes to the tenant's circumstances which merit additional assistance, the Housing Department may exercise discretion to regrant the tenancy.

End/Wednesday, December 4, 2002

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