Property Owning Democracies? Home Owner Corporations in Hong Kong

Difficulties in executing the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (MBIS) for existing private buildings in Hong Kong

“…Besides, a lack of requisite skills and knowledge are also commonly identified as the constraint to building care actions (Kangwa & Olubodun, 2003). Yip and Forrest (2002) also pointed out that spending extra financial resources for renovations is burdensome especially apparent in older buildings where senior citizens are living. Numerous assistance measures such as the Mandatory Building Inspection Subsidy Scheme (MBISS) and the Integrated Building Maintenance Assistance Scheme (IBMAS) jointly launched by the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) and the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) would be useful to provide financial support to the eligible flat owners for paying the inspection fees and repair/ maintenance costs under MBIS.…”

“…The fragmented ownership was discerned as a major barrier/hurdle to the launch of the inspection and maintenance works especially the buildings without owners' corporation. Yip and Forrest (2002) pointed out that the formation of owners' corporation is essential in handling building maintenance problems with the dilapidated buildings especially in Hong Kong. The repair and maintenance works for the common parts are often hampered due to the multi-ownership of multi-storey private buildings (Lai & Chan, 2004;Yau et al, 2008).…”

“…The inspection arrangements and maintenance works for the buildings especially without owners' corporations would be difficult to be conducted, and thus it is common that the renovation or maintenance works of these buildings have been always delayed. Yip and Forrest (2002) suggested that the formation of owners' corporation is indispensable and effective in resolving common problems of building ageing and deterioration. Owners' corporations (OCs) are an organisational form designed to enhance and facilitate collective resident involvement in the management and maintenance of mainly highrise buildings.…”

Determinants of the Safety Performance of Private Multi-storey Residential Buildings in Hong Kong

“…Since high transaction costs are involved in negotiation, coordination and conflict resolution in order to achieve a common consensus among individual unit owners to carry out building improvement works, underinvestment in building maintenance is a likely outcome. As highlighted by Yip and Forrest (2002), individual unit owners may be faced with difficulties in obtaining the consents from all owners for certain maintenance works which are deemed necessary and essential. For this reason, an ineffective building management system could have a detrimental effect on the safety performance of buildings in which it is implemented.…”

Management of low-income condominiums in Bogotá and Quito: the balance between property law and self-organisation

“…The problem is that participation in the board of homeowners or as a manager is not a popular activity among co-owners in the sample. Consequently, rotation, as one democratic principle involved in condominium obligations, is difficult to achieve (Yip & Forrest, 2002). To summarise, community characteristic variables in both Bogota and Quito explained about 20%-22% of the variance in PML.…”