Flat subdivision

B UILDINGS DEPARTMENT (BD) officers have, for the second time, broken into subdivided flats with the police's assistance and inspected them. Under the Buildings Ordinance, BD officers may enter and where necessary, in the presence of a police officer, break into any premises to ascertain whether any building is dangerous. As it is right to respect private property and privacy, BD officers rarely exercise this power. When they inspect a building, they usually observe it from the outside. They cannot by doing so find out how its interior condition is. There are now many subdivided flats, whose layouts may have been drastically altered. Clearly, the method of observing buildings from the outside is inadequate. How many subdivided flats are there in the SAR? The authorities have said they do not have the figure. Last April the BD launched an operation to tackle subdivided flat safety. As of mid-July, BD officers inspected only 104 units in 43 subdivided flats in 48 buildings. It is said that they will inspect about 1,300 such units in 150 buildings a year. The flat subdivision problem being "unfathomable", the figures the government has released are very disheartening indeed. At such a rate, when will it manage to put itself in the picture about the flat subdivision problem? In fact, if its public rental housing production target remains 15,000 units a year, the number of subdivided flats will go up and up. It is worth notice whether it will become more and more out of touch with this problem. According to the BD, most of the problems of subdivided flats its officers have discovered since the operation began nearly two and a half months ago have to do with fire safety. Furthermore, a person familiar with flat subdivision estimates that, if a 500-square-foot flat is subdivided into three units, the building's load will be 10 tonnes to 15 tonnes greater, and its structure may be seriously affected. In a building more than 50 years old, such a situation is like a time bomb planted in it. Flat subdivision adversely affects fire safety and structure, and those who live in subdivided flats are in danger of losing their lives. That is quite unsettling. The flat subdivision problem is serious and deep-rooted. Even if the government is determined to deal with it, many years will pass before it is resolved. After all, we have not heard it aims at "zero subdivided flat". The problem will persist. We can only rely on the government to step up control and law enforcement with a view to obviating potential dangers. It should do the following three things as soon as possible. (1) It should hire more inspectors and promptly put itself in the picture about flat subdivision. It should set up a flat subdivision database so that it can exercise effective supervision. (2) It should have the applicable legislation amended as soon as possible to include flat subdivision in the ambit of the Minor Works Control System. It should require owners to hire qualified contractors lest there should be structural damage.

(3) It should have the applicable legislation amended to allow BD officers to apply to the court for warrants to enter subdivided flats. This would save them from having to go through complicated procedures to get help from the police. We believe the court will strike a proper balance between ensuring public safety and protecting private property. 4 1 7 48 43 104 150 1300 1.5 500 3 10 15 50 3 1 2 3 Glossary property right to possession, use etc.

unfathomable /?n'fae?m ?b(?)l/incapable of being fathomed. To fathom a problem is to grasp or comprehend it. picture If you put a person in the picture about something, you give him the information he needs to understand it.