Can I terminate tenancy contract? 3 building orders are issued but nothing has been done;

7 months ago I moved into a very old 50 year old walk-up-building. My landlord is a big HK developer who owns a few apartments in the block;

Over the last couple of months the condition of the building increasingly deteriorated with large parts of plaster falling off the ceiling and walls in the common areas, exposing the reinforcement steel on dozens of locations. The reinforcement steel is partially rotten to the core and with bare hands I can loosen parts;


I notified my landlord who responded that “as minor owner there is little they can do and it is the owner’s cooperation’s responsibility to do any repairs”; obviously the landlord does not want to invest into any repairs because it is most likely a speculative property and demolishing and rebuilding would be a much better deal for them.

I informed the building department and they had a thorough inspection and informed me that already last year in October a building order was issued to repair the common areas; in addition after this visit building department issued another 2 orders, one for repairing the dangerously damaged air-condition ledges and one to repair/inspect the entire drainage system; nothing has done to date and all the deadlines for repairs disregarded;

I have had about enough with this landlord and the condition of the house; a few weeks ago large concrete pieces fell onto the footpath when one of the air-condition ledges collapsed; I do have a large crack developing in the beam of the living room which the building departments said “could be superficial” but advised me to closely monitor; every few days more ceiling areas in the common area collapse;


I would like to get out of this tenancy agreement, at the moment I still have 1.5 years because I signed 2 years; Can I terminate the contract on basis that 3 building orders have been issued but are disregarded and the building is potentially in unsafe conditions?

Can the landlord really argue that it is solely the owner’s cooperation’s responsibility to look after common areas?


Any advise how to get out of a contract in a legal way?

I have forwarded your email to one of our duty lawyers, who will reply to us.

We have forwarded your email to one of our duty lawyers who asks that you email a copy of the Lease to him.