Do I have grounds for legal action?

I would like to hear sound advice as to what you would do if my present predicament.


I have a service business in HK and all is not well in part due to the poor business climate we have now.


What isn't making it better is the physical environment my business is in. The business is situated in a open residential area owned by a big real estate company. They (the company) is doing a very very big renovation job like scaffolding, painting, re-tilling etc since the start of last year 2009 to this day.


As you can imagine, the pollution, dirt and most importantly I think the noise is affecting the turnover of customers who rely on my premises to be quiet for my services to be good quality.


Anyway, I just wanted to see if any legal professionals out can see my point of view and give general advice. I'm not sure if I can do anything at all but I know it's stressing me out to no ends :( Hanging tough though :)

What sort of business are you in? Do you have any legal relationship (eg tenant) wit the real estate company? Are they acting within their legal limits?

If you lease your business premises from the Real Estate Company that is conducting the renovations... then your lease should state the conditions that they promise to maintain for you.


For example, the lease might say that the Landlord has to keep the property well-maintained and not disturb the tenants etc.


In that case, you can argue that their renovation work is affecting your business and contravenes the agreement you have with them.


First consult your lease.


Second: consider approaching the Real Estate company to see whether they will allow a rental reduction during the period of their renovations with you.


What is it that you want: rental reduction, or compensation so you can move and set up business elsewhere?

Hi Slammy,


Yes, I reading the lease now but I can't see much so far ... a very long read :(


I do want a rental reduction plus compensation from the time they started the renovation.


Thanks for marking up the path for me.