Landlord takes forever to fix anything!!

Hi All, really need advice with HK tenancy rights. I have moved into an apartment with new interiors for almost a year now. I originally rented it because of the new interior even though it is in a very old building. Anyhow, apparently the landlord just created a facade of new interior, because after we moved in found out all the items mostly made in China, and falls apart here and there all the time. Our enclosed balcony for instance was leaking quite a bit of water during rainstorms which took her 2 months to fix despite of my complaint of several typhoon and monsoons during the summer. My 2 year old son slipped twice due to the slippery surface, which really infuriated me. Other than that, leaking toilet bowls, leaking sinks, leaking walls forming very moldy films are all things she has not fixed yet, if ever... I have found my own contractor to attempt to fix small leaks but they say they are not fixable unless changing the whole faucet, toilet bowl, which are considered big projects. I have signed a standard lease, but I don't know what are the landlord's responsibility to fix or not. Non stop problems are driving me crazy and I want to fix everything up and just deduct it from the rent since the landlord is hard to reach and even reached does not want to fix. Need advice, help!! I don't want to move cuz it is such a hassle, and not sure if I should hire a lawyer to serve legal notice?

thanks but I read the ordinance and it does not include repair and maintenance issues!


The Ordinance does not contain provisions on repair liabilities. Any dispute on repair

and maintenance liabilities, which cannot be settled between the landlord and tenant,

may be resolved in court by reference to the expressed or implied terms of the

tenancy and in accordance with common law principles.

Yes, like most HK Ordinances, they can be quite ambiguous and take a lot of effort to absorb the entirety.


The standard off the shelf contracts which most independent landlords use don't cover much on the said maintenance bit, just that, when you leave, you should hand back everything that was there when you first moved in.


Common sense should prevail in these situations, especially like the problems you are facing. It's not unreasonable by any standards to expect a toilet not to leak, or that windows should keep out the elements. As long as these were problems developed through wear and tear and not the result of misuse. If this were my building, I would be terribly embarrassed if these problems were reported and would have the builders/plumbers in first thing.