Illegal structure advice

Whoops - I just posted this under Property, maybe it's better here :


I own a duplex in HK and rent it out to a tenant - no problems. In the recent typhoon, a plane of glass blew off a structure (like a small conservatory) on the balcony and crashed onto the roof of the duplex below.


There was some damage to a few roof tiles and some broken glass obviously but no other damage and no one was hurt.


Obviously I will reimburse the neighbour for the damaged roof tiles, but I have been informed that they have contacted the police and reported an illegal structure on my balcony!! They also said they would take legal proceedings if I didn't repond to their email in 3 days !!!! (For the record, I have, very politely, assured them that their damage will be covered by me).


What gets me is that yes it's a small illegal structure (what dwelling in HK doesn't have one?), but why would they be so confrontational?? This is typhoon damage we are talking about and only happened a few days ago....


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have had the same thing happen to me and not to depress you in your hour of need...but we had to tear down the structure or face a huge fine if we delayed. However, we didn't know who had lodged the complaint so couldn't really do anything about it as we only heard about it when we got a letter stuck to our door from the buildings dept. They aren't into reasoning either!


My only suggestion is to speak to your neighbours in person to see if they will listen to reason.


Good Luck!

The glass flew onto their legal roof, where they have legal access to play, sit or store their stuff.

The glass flew off your illegal structure.

Surely you can understand their position especially with TC Jingmi (?) on track to hit next Tuesday, "3 days" is fair response time. Any inaction may make you responsible for a greater disaster in the future.


You now know that the structure is not up to strong winds. It is currently damaged so is even less structurally safe. Not all illegal structures are dangerous, but your's is.

"What gets me is that yes it's a small illegal structure (what dwelling in HK doesn't have one?),"


Mine doesn't have one as do many others! So that's not really an excuse and you have stated yourself it's an illegal structure........


"but why would they be so confrontational?? This is typhoon damage we are talking about and only happened a few days ago...."


What if this happened during the day and someone was on the roof? If there were seriously injured you could be looking at millions in compensation. Just get rid of the structure, it does sound like it's unsafe and a danger to others anyway.