Mount Austin

Hi All,

I wish to share some insights to avoid you running into disappointments when renting a flat/house at Mount Austin, a rather nice looking low dense compound at The Peak opposite to the Mount Austin playground.

We moved in about a year ago, it is a nice looking place with a club house hosting function room, pool and gym plus bbq area. Our agent said it is quiet, exactly what we looked for. The whole compound is owned by one landlord and tenants/agents deal with the self-made management company.

After signing our lease and moving in we were confronted with a notice about renovation works of the units above us. One would think that these works would be done when the unit is still empty but no, we moved and were exposed to drilling nuisance for our first three months. After that a family moved in the unit above us and this is when the sleepless mornings started. During the first days I thought they are moving furnitures and want to settle but apparently they are early raisers and their kid(s) would be happily running around and maids vacuuming the floors and keep moving and dropping things. That is around 5-8am. Realizing that this kind of noise is for a) a timing issue but mostly b) a structural issue. This morning I could hear the water in bath tub. Needless to say we contacted the management office to explain that we feel there are structural issues plus I asked the maids to vacuum/clean a bit later. Things didn't improve and after countless audio notes the management decided to put a fake ceiling in our master bedroom with some additional insulation. We were traveling at that time and agreed that the management shall give this a shot. They claimed it significantly worked but upon return we were astonished with how little changed...

The management's attitude, esp customer service changed. Probably realizing wasting dollars. I gave them a few options to solve our issue among to move us to another unit, break the lease and return the deposit to us on top of emptying the unit above us. For the last option, I didn't expect this to be an actual one but our first three months endured proper sleep. The management came back not accepting any option and telling me via the phone that they will need a court order to clear the upper floor. I was in disbelief that such a premium place would prefer to have tenants sue each other rather than amicably parting ways which I told them is the best option. Few months down the road, our lawyer advised us that in HK the only viable option is to evict the other tenant which in most cases doesn't work and who wants to do this anyways...

I realized that upon moving in all upper units were not inhabited. After we moved in and our neighbors upstairs the highest floor was finally rented out as well. Starting to think that this is not a coincidence. And the neighbors below us moved out few months later. Overall, for a low dense compound like this there are non-stop people moving in and out. Someone from the management team told me in private that many new tenants complain about the noise issue...but of course in HK there is nothing we can do.

The lease team gives agents a premium for closing deals, I now know why. I encountered countless little things to fix like toilets leaking, air conditioners not working (causing quite some dirt to replace), noisy toilet flushes, frequent 'renovation' works, flush water suspensions But among all, the sound insulation and nuisance is very disturbing and sleep depriving. We move out, as many others, as soon as the lease expires. I just don't wish anyone to be blinded and experience the same management (preferring tenants to sue tenants) and nuisance. It destroys the peaceful environment of The Peak.

Put your money somewhere else.

God bless!

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