Wing Keung Construction has filed a writ against Paul Y Engineering, the main contractor of Jack Ma Yun's 22 Barker Road property, alleging failure to pay HK$37.88 million.

Ma bought the luxury house on The Peak for HK$1.5 billion from the former deputy chairman of PCCW (0008), Francis Yuen Tin-fan, and his wife in 2015.

The property was a three-story house with a site area of 12,579 square feet and a gross floor area of 9,890 square feet.

Ma hired Paul Y Engineering as main contractor for the house's renewal project in April 2018. Paul Y Engineering outsourced the subcontract to Wing Keung Construction. The total construction amount involved HK$109 million.

The renewal project, which planned to build a four-story residential building with a gross floor area of 12,680 square feet, started in August 2019. In June 2020, Wing Keung submitted an interim payment application to recover Paul Y's HK$15.16 million project arrears.

However, Paul Y later provided the subcontract between the two parties and pointed out that the arrears was only HK$3.7 million and it had already paid the amount to Wing Keung.

Wing Keung said that as the project was postponed for the third time, Wing Keung suffered losses and requested payment of HK$37.88 million.

The project is coming to an end. In February, construction workers protested in front of the house and said the main contractor was behind in payment to the sub-contractor. Paul Y. Engineering denied payment was due.

Recently, the subcontractor officially filed a writ to chase the arrears.

The house had been the Belgian consular residence. In 2002, Yuen and his wife, as well as the former Hang Seng Bank vice-chairman and chief executive, Rose Lee Wai-mun, bought it for HK$160 million, in the name of the off-shore company Alatini Group Limited. The house was then sold in a "shell" to Ma.

Jack Ma bought the home at 22 Barker Road for HK$1.5 billion. SING TAO

$37m contractors row hits Ma's Peak pad