Housing chief Ho finally puts her house in order

Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin has only recently removed an unauthorized canopy at her Mid-Levels home - 14 years after the Buildings Department issued a removal order.

Ho and her husband bought the home with a parking space for HK$12.5 million in 2006. The parking space came with an illegal canopy.

In 2008, the department issued Ho a warning asking her to remove the structure within two months, as well as an injunction order against the sale of the property. The unauthorized canopy was not removed until early this year.

Ho said she had sent letters to the property management company several times over the past few years, asking them to remove the illegal structure as soon as possible.

"The canopy was not built for a single parking stall. It was connected to another five to six parking stalls as well as a stone wall beside it," she said.

"As we have had to deal with safety issues, including the stability of the stone wall and other property owners' parking space, it took a long time to study and discuss the complicated project."

Ho said the property management company sent professionals to check the area and hired contractors for the removal work last year.

The department said it discovered the illegal canopy that covered around 10 parking spaces in 2007. It issued a warning to the owners in October 2008 and injunction orders against the sale of all properties involved in February 2009.

The department said it sent staff to check the area recently and found that the canopy had been removed. The Land Registry then canceled the warning and injunction orders.

Ho, an architect, was appointed housing chief in July after the government was restructured. Prior to that, she had been the director of architectural services since 2020.

Unauthorized building works had been discovered at the homes of other officials, including former secretary for justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah.

Cheng and her husband, veteran engineer Otto Poon Lok-to, were found to have unauthorized construction work on two of their houses at Villa de Mer in Tuen Mun in 2018, right after Cheng took the office.

But only Poon was prosecuted for violating the Buildings Ordinance and was later fined HK$20,000 for building a pool without authorization.

Former chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen was also found to have an illegal basement at his home on York Road in Kowloon Tong in 2012. The 2,300-square-foot basement reportedly had a wine cellar and a Japanese bath.

Tang's wife Lisa Kuo Yu-chin later said it was her idea to build the basement and she was fined HK$110,000.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com