Hong Kong illegal structures: officials warn they will seek court warrants to enter 3 houses at Redhill Peninsula after owners fail to respond to inspection requests

Hong Kong authorities will apply for court warrants to gain entry to three houses at a luxury residential estate where rampant abuse of building laws has been uncovered after owners failed to respond to inspection requests twice.

Officers from the buildings and lands departments on Monday afternoon returned to the Redhill Peninsula in Tai Tam to inspect 10 homes they were unable to get into on Friday and which were suspected to have unauthorised structures and had illegally encroached on government land.

Buildings Department chief building surveyor Keith Ko Kiu-kin said officials had managed to get in touch with seven of the 10 owners and he urged the remaining three to contact officials as soon as possible.

“We will apply for a court warrant [on Tuesday] … If everything goes smoothly, we can post the notice [on Tuesday],” Ko said.

“We hope to accelerate the process but we need to follow procedures.”

The 10 properties were among 85 seaside houses checked by the government on Friday, after another four homes at the estate were exposed by a recent landslide as having illegal structures or had encroached on government land.

Out of the 85 properties, 70 had suspected illegal structures while 40 homes were also suspected of using government land without permission.