Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
The following is issued on behalf of the Office of The Ombudsman:
The Ombudsman, Mr Jack Chan, today (August 7) announced the completion of a direct investigation operation into the Housing Department (HD)’s handling of air-conditioner dripping in public housing estates, with 15 major recommendations for improvement made to the HD.There are two categories of misdeeds under the Marking Scheme: those incurring a warning prior to the allotment of penalty points, and those resulting in an immediate point allotment. Air-conditioner dripping falls into the former category. The Office’s investigation revealed that in air-conditioner dripping cases, the HD’s PSAs often issued reminder letters to non-compliant tenants before enforcing the Marketing Scheme. These letters were merely advisory in nature. During the Office’s inquiry and investigation, initially the HD had not yet formulated guidelines on issuing reminder letters. Between 2022 and 2024, the HD’s PSAs issued an average of two reminder letters per complaint, which was more than tenfold of those issued in directly managed estates. There were cases which revealed that despite the repeated issuance of reminder letters, the dripping problem still occurred. As the HD’s PSAs might not be required to report the number of reminder letters issued to the HD, the HD can hardly verify whether its PSAs are issuing too many reminder letters or mishandling air-conditioner dripping complaints.The Office’s major recommendations for improvement to the HD include: