The fires at two industrial buildings in Ngau Tau Kok and Cheung Sha Wan earlier on have raised public concern about the potential fire hazards in industrial buildings. In addition to exploring legislative amendment to enhance the requirements on the provision of fire service installations and equipment in old industrial buildings, we must adopt a risk-based strategy to step up lease/law enforcement actions against uses in breach of the lease/the law involving industrial buildings to safeguard public safety.
At present, it is specified in the lease of most industrial buildings that the lot shall only be for “industrial and/or godown” use(s). Under such circumstances, if an industrial building is used for other purposes, it may be in breach of the lease conditions unless the owner has applied and obtained approval from the Lands Department (LandsD) for modification or waiver of the user clause. Despite this, various kinds of uses in breach of the lease are found in some industrial buildings, such as learning centres, tuition centres, religious gathering places, shops, restaurants and places of entertainment/recreation. Members of the public, such as students and customers, are often attracted by these uses to the industrial buildings. I hope the public will understand that the fire risk of industrial buildings is much higher than that of other commercial and residential buildings. There are currently hundreds of old industrial buildings that are not installed with automatic sprinkler systems; and there are some industrial buildings that have been issued with Licences for Manufacture and/or Storage of Dangerous Goods (DGLs). If a fire breaks out in such buildings, the consequences could be disastrous as the large number of people inside are not familiar with the complex environment of the place where they are in.
In view of this, the LandsD announced the new risk-based enforcement arrangements against lease breaches in industrial buildings last Friday after consulting the Fire Services Department (FSD). Starting from August 29, if the uses in breach of the lease of an industrial building unit (such as tuition centres, shops, restaurants) would attract patronage by members of the public, and that other premises in the same industrial building have been issued with DGLs by the FSD, these building units will become the first round targets of our enforcement actions. The District Lands Office (DLO) concerned will issue a warning letter to the land owner in question, requiring rectification of the breach of uses within 14 days or the DLO will commence the procedures to re-enter the unit concerned.
In the coming weeks, the LandsD will step up publicity efforts in industrial buildings with known breaches of the lease in the first round, so that the owners, the operators or the public patronising these premises in industrial buildings will be well-informed of the specific arrangements, and have ample time for rectification. The arrangements may cause inconveniences to some members of the public who are using the services provided by these units. We hope that everyone will take account of their own safety and that of other people (including the safety of those firemen who may have to enter the fire scenes), appreciate and support our arrangements. As for other categories of lease breaches in industrial buildings, the LandsD will continue with the current lease enforcement arrangements. I appeal to all owners concerned to rectify the breach of uses as soon as possible to safeguard public safety. Members of the public should also avoid patronising these premises for their own safety and that of their family members.
To curb the illegal domestic use of industrial building units, the Buildings Department (BD) has been conducting large-scale enforcement operations since 2012. As at end-May this year, 99 target industrial buildings were inspected and 131 removal and discontinuation orders were issued. When necessary, the BD will apply for a closure order from the Court to eradicate illegal domestic use. Having reviewed the effectiveness of the enforcement actions, we are exploring ways to step up enforcement efforts on different fronts to further combat illegal domestic uses in industrial buildings: (1) BD officers often encounter difficulties in entering the units to collect evidence when inspecting suspected sub-divided units in industrial buildings because some owners or tenants are uncooperative. We are studying the possibility of granting more authority to BD officers in this respect so as to expedite the collection of evidence. (2) We will consider criminalising the illegal operation of industrial building units for domestic use. (3) To combat corporate operation of such illegal activities, we will study ways to hold directors of the companies concerned criminally liable in order to strengthen deterrence. (4) The LandsD is considering exercising more stringent enforcement actions against cases in breach of the lease, including re-entering the units concerned. If legislative amendments are necessary, we will proceed full steam ahead; our target is to put forward the proposed amendments in the next legislative session.
Given the various fire hazards, individual law-breaking and lease-breaching operators should correct their habitual errors from stem to stern rather than making excuses for their attempts to cut costs, and resorting to sophistry to defend their business practices that are jeopardising the safety of the public, especially children. People living in industrial buildings are exposed to extremely high fire risks. When it comes to a matter of life and death, we will never compromise and will have to eradicate all illegal activities. Fundamentally speaking, the root cause of the phenomenon of industrial buildings being used for domestic purpose is the continuous shortage of housing supply. While we will continue our efforts to increase housing land supply to meet the housing needs of the public, we will not tolerate the illegal domestic use of industrial buildings for the sake of public safety.
17 July, 2016
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