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The Housing Department has started its latest bid to combat wealthy occupants by requiring public rental estate tenants to declare their properties or risk losing their homes.
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Director of Housing Rosanna Law Shuk-pui said the department has sent out 88,000 declaration forms in the past few days as it plans to deal with 800,000 public rental housing tenants across the city in batches.
"We cannot deal with all 800,000 tenants' declarations at the same time, so some will receive it in October, some will receive it later on," Law said.
"If tenants see the declaration form in their mailbox, they have to fill it in and return it back to us."
Among the 88,000 tenants in the first batch, most have lived in public rental housing for two to eight years.
Tenants who have been in public flats for 10 years have already made their declaration earlier during the income and assets declaration under the "well-off" tenants policies.
"We will deal with the declarations in accordance with our established mechanism. We do not expect many of them to refuse making the declaration," Law said.
"The department will send them a reminder mid-this month, and if we follow up their case several times but they still refuse to submit their declaration form by November, we will issue them a notice-to-quit to terminate their tenancy."
If tenants declare that they own a property, the department will not penalize them but require them to vacate the unit within a month.
"Public rental housing aims to provide a shelter for those in need [to] improve their living conditions," she said.
"If tenants already own a property, they should not be occupying the precious public rental housing resources."
Assistant director of housing Tang Fung Shuk-yin said the declarations will be done in five batches and are expected to be completed by October next year. The declarations will have to be made every two years.
"In regards to elderly tenants, we are planning to require them to declare the occupancy situation in October next year," Tang said.
However, after considering that some elderly are immobile, the department plans to distribute the declaration forms to their door or seek the help of estate officers or care teams, Law said.
She said the department will deal with tenants that own properties under their company's name on a case-by-case basis.
"If the tenant is the board director or owner of the company, then they will have to declare ownership of the property. But if the company is owned by multiple people, and it [property] could not be used for residential purposes, then we will deal with it with leniency."
She emphasized: "Tenants have to truthfully fill in their declaration form, as they will be bearing legal responsibility if they make a false declaration."
The department is looking at ways to exchange information with other departments including the Lands Department, she said, but it is also the tenants' responsibility to declare within a month after purchasing a property.
We are looking into policies to curb the abuse, Law said, as she believes some tenants have turned their rental units into hostels.
"This is outrageous. If we find out who [they are], we will crack down [on them].
michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com
Rosanna Law
