The owner of Hong Kong’s only privately-owned low-rental housing estate has applied to the court to order two residents to hand over their flats and rent allowances ahead of the estate’s planned redevelopment.
The Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation, which owns Tai Hang Sai Estate, earlier filed a writ to the city’s District Court to order two residents to move out of their flats and hand over some HK$280,000 in allowances, according to local media.
Residents were given rent and relocation subsidies as part of the corporation’s relocation plan. Those deemed eligible to return to the estate following its five-year redevelopment received between HK$9,000 and HK$13,500 in monthly rental subsidies.
Most of the estate’s residents moved out in mid-March, while several who were not able to find a new home were given more time to do so.
According to local media reports, the tenancy agreements of the two residents were terminated last August, requiring them to move out in February. Neither had vacated their homes by the deadline, despite the corporation sending letters reminding them to move out.
Li Pui-fong, who was eligible for a HK$838,000 pay-out, has been given HK$167,000 of the total sum, while Li Sau-ling, who was found eligible for HK$570,000, received HK$114,000, according to the writ. The remaining subsidies would be paid after they handed over their flats.
The corporation also said in the writ that the two residents’ eligibility to return to the redeveloped estate would be retracted as a result of their breach of the tenancy agreement, according to local media reports.
The estate was initially built in 1965, with an eighth block added in 1977, to rehouse people affected by the clearance of the Tai Hang Sai Resettlement Area by offering over 1,600 units below market value.
Since the corporation last June announced its relocation plan, tenants have held protests calling for relocation in public rental housing, saying that landlords would be hesitant to lease to elderly residents.
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