Waterworks (Amendment) Ordinance 2024 significantly enhances effectiveness of combating overcharging for water
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The amended WWO empowered the WSD and the Rating and Valuation Department (RVD) to exchange information, enabling a more effective process of inspection. The WSD can now handle cases that could not be followed up in the past, resulting in a significant increase in the number of investigation cases. As of today, since the enactment of the amended WWO, the WSD has completed 280 investigation cases of suspected overcharging tenants for water in SDUs. Among them, a total of 21 cases were prosecuted and convicted with fines, while some other cases are in the prosecution process. This represents a five to six times increase compared to the more than 40 cases per year before the enactment of the amended WWO. It far exceeds by three to four times the previous average of about six convictions per year.
The amended WWO also empowers the WSD to compel relevant persons to provide information or documents, including receipts for water charges or payment records, for investigation. With this new enforcement power, landlords' response rate grows from 10 per cent in the past to about 90 per cent recently. The WSD also successfully prosecuted several landlords and WSD-registered consumers for failing to provide the requested information or documents.
To enhance effectiveness in tackling suspected offence cases, the WSD and the RVD have conducted joint inspections and operations to handle complaints, achieving synergy in soliciting relevant information from landlords in respect of their payments/collections of reimbursements for water charges.
The WSD will continue efforts to step up prosecution and inspections against overcharging for water in SDUs under the amended WWO and to appeal to landlords to apply for the installation of separate water meters for their SDUs, which can greatly reduce the risk of contravening the amended WWO. The WSD encourages the public to report any illegal acts of overcharging SDU tenants for water for follow-up and investigation by the department. The public can call the WSD Hotline 3468 4963 or WhatsApp 5665 5517 to apply for the installation of separate water meters for SDUs. The WhatsApp hotline also handles matters relating to water overcharging in SDUs. Alternatively, the public can call the WSD Customer Enquiry Hotline 2824 5000 to report water overcharge cases. After calling the hotline and choosing a language, they can press "7" for reporting to staff directly.
Ends/Friday, April 25, 2025
Issued at HKT 17:00
Issued at HKT 17:00
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