Opinion | Why can’t Hongkongers resist illegal home improvements?
- The phenomenon claims everyone from government officials and public figures to New Territories villagers, and the owner of one Lohas Park flat
- While safety is paramount, the practice may reflect a need to update Hong Kong’s building codes and regulations to offer reasonable room for creativity
Perhaps out of respect for people’s homes and privacy, the Buildings Department rarely carries out inspections for illegal construction, unless there are reasonable grounds to do so. Yet, illegal construction is a common practice in the city and the department tends to investigate only when illegal conditions are reported.
The most common “petty crimes” committed by designers and contractors include changing non-load-bearing-wall partitions, adding windows to balconies to seal them off as interior spaces, installing oversized awnings and overhangs at the building’s perimeter, and erecting rooftop structures.
While knowingly violating the building codes and regulations, in general, designers and contractors uphold a “code of honour” that any works should not pose a danger to others, and that structural components are untouchable.
Demolishing part of a structural wall to make way for a door was ludicrous on many levels. It takes collective stupidity, for lack of better words, for the designer to propose, the owner to approve, and the contractor to execute such irresponsible work without statutory review and approval.
One cannot claim ignorance, either, as it does not take an expert to identify structural walls on a floor plan and contractors had to cut through a lattice of steel rebar to create an opening.
