Hong Kong joint office handles over 19,000 water seepage complaints since July
Hong Kong's Environment and Ecology Bureau deputy director said a joint office of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and Buildings Department received 19,048 water seepage complaints from 16 July to 22 October. All cases were assigned case managers, with 4,322 repair notices issued, about
Hong Kong's deputy director of the Environment and Ecology Bureau, Wong Suk-han, said a joint office comprising the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and the Buildings Department received 19,048 water seepage complaints from 16 July to 22 October. All cases had been assigned a case manager for follow-up.
Among the complaints, repair advisory notices were issued to 4,322 suspected source units, accounting for about 34 per cent of inspected cases, Wong said.
After the notice period expires, the joint office aims to verify the situation on-site within 12 working days. As of 3 October, the verification deadline had passed for 1,827 cases, of which 828 had been verified. Among those, 424 cases—about half—had their seepage problems resolved. Another 29 cases were granted extensions after property owners provided evidence of arranging repair works. The remaining 375 cases had simultaneously entered the second and third stages of investigation.
Under the new procedure, authorities will issue “nuisance notices” to owners who fail to fulfil their repair responsibilities and will recover inspection costs from them. Wong noted that since the new procedure was only introduced in mid-July, the earliest data on completed investigations, confirmed sources, issued nuisance notices and recovered costs would likely be available around mid-December.