A group of Tai Po fire survivors have asked their housing estate manager to hold a general meeting with homeowners to discuss long-term relocation and related financial issues after collecting 247 handwritten signatures.
Organizers of the petition released a media statement on Tuesday, saying they had delivered the petition and handwritten signatures to Hop On Management on April 29.
Hop On Management – a subsidiary of real estate giant Chinachem Group – was appointed by the government in early January to act as administrator of the incorporated owners of Wang Fuk Court after a court dissolved the board of owners of the Tai Po residential property.
Displaced homeowners, who are scattered across Hong Kong after the deadly fire, have since asked Hop On to call a general meeting, but to no avail.
Jason Kong, one of the organizers of the petition, told HKFP on Tuesday that a Hop On staff member received the petition in person on April 29.
The staff member gave Kong an acknowledgment note that said the company had received the documents but also said: “The contents have not been verified.”
Kong also said that within two weeks, organizers had collected 247 signatures from Wang Fuk Court homeowners and representatives of those killed in the November inferno.
Each signatory not only signed his name, but also provided his Wang Fuk Court address and contact number, he added.
“The responsibility of further verifying these signatures rests with Hop On,” Kong said in Cantonese, “We have collected signatures from about 12 percent of all households (at Wang Fuk court) – more than enough to call a general meeting.”
Hong Kong Building Management Ordinance ESTABLISHING that a management committee must call a general meeting at the written request of at least five percent of the owners.
Wang Fuk Court has a total of 1984 units and 247 signatories pass the required threshold.
HKFP has contacted Hop On for comment.
The Tai Po fire broke out on November 26, claiming 168 lives and burning the homes of thousands. The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948.
March petition
Kong and other survivors of the fire set off a similar online petition in March, signed by more than 400 homeowners and representatives of those killed in the fire.
However, Hop On refused the request. In an email sent to Kong on April 5, Hop On said the petition did not meet legal requirements and that it would not be holding a formal owners’ meeting at that stage.
“After a detailed review and consultation with legal counsel, we note that… you had collected the owners’ concerns through an online form but provided no further information,” Hop On said in the email, which was seen by HKFP.
Four days later, the Department of Internal Affairs said so received complaints from several residents of Wang Fuk Courtwho claimed that the petition did not verify the identity of the signatories.
“Individual homeowners said the so-called petition lacked authentication mechanisms and could involve people impersonating owners and forging signatures. Personal information collected also risks being misused or misused without authorization,” the department said.
The department also said it had referred the matter to law enforcement agencies for investigation.
Kong said this time, he and other organizers spent several weeks personally collecting ink signatures from homeowners.
“After we found that some information was missing, such as the home address, we contacted the signer again to fill in the information,” Kong said.
Many Wang Fuk Court homeowners hope to discuss long-term resettlement options at the long-awaited meeting, as well as government arrangements for fire survivors returning home to pack up personal belongings, he said.
They also want to discuss financial matters related to the Wang Fuk Court, such as insurance claimsKong added.
