One landlord snared over sub-divided flat violations
The government says hundreds of violations have been uncovered since new regulations on sub-divided flats came into force a year ago and it has managed to successfully prosecute one landlord. During a Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday, Housing Secretary Winnie Ho said almost 1,100 suspected violations have been identified since January 2022, and officials are still probing around two-thirds of them. She added that so far, one landlord has been fined HK$6,600 by a court, over missing documents. But lawmakers from the DAB party said officials need to step up their prosecution work to better protect the rights of grassroots tenants.  In response, Ho said these tenants are often reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement, citing factors such as time constraints.  "We will need the tenants to come forward to testify, but they're grassroots people who have to work, they may be reluctant to spend time on this," she said. "Some of them may not be very willing to provide further information to [the Rating and Valuation Department], and therefore it cannot take further action on these cases." On setting an initial rent for sub-divided flats as part of the rent control regime, the housing chief stressed that the government needs more time to analyse data as the rent level may be affected by the availability of more transitional housing and light public housing units in the coming years.  She also rejected the idea of the Hong Kong government buying up flats elsewhere in the Greater Bay Area to house those waiting for public housing here, saying the grassroots community wouldn't welcome the idea of having to make long trips to work.