No sign of owner, so tenant gets $420,000 HK flat

Sun, Aug 08, 2010
The New Paper

SHE tried to look for the owner of the flat she has been renting since 1973but to no avail. On Monday, the tenant became the owner of the flat in Hong Kong.

The territory's High Court ruled that Madam Lam Che be awarded ownership of a 600 sq ft flat in To Kwa Wan,reported Apple Daily.

In 1973, Madam Lam and Madam Foung Sheu Kwun entered into a verbal agreement for the former to rent the flat for HK$600 (S$100) a month.The arrangement continued until 1984 when Madam Foung did not turn up at the flat to collect the rent.

Since then, she has remained uncontactable. So for the next 26 years, Madam Lam lived in the flat now worth HK$2.4 million - rent-free.

During that time, she paid all government charges for building maintenance and became a member of the building owners' corporation.

On June 12, Madam Lam asked the court to make her the flat owner, citing adverse possession under the Limitation Ordinance.

This means ownership of a private property may be questioned if the owner has not used it for 12 years, during which it was used by another person. The court asked Madam Lam to place a missing-person advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper.

Madam Lam also visited her landlady's known residences in Lai Chi Kok and Wan Chai, but she was not in either home.

'Unusual'

The High Court, in handing down the ruling on Monday, described the case as "unusual".

Explaining his decision, Deputy High Court Judge Ian Carlson said that neither Madam Foung nor her relatives showed up in court to counter Madam Lam's application.

Ms Lam's neighbours told The Standard they had not heard of her.

One neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Ms Wong, told The Standard that there had been tenancy disputes over the flat.

Others living in the building said there were various tenants and people collected rent from time to time.

The lobby of the building has two notices - one from a Hong Kong-based property agency and another from an alliance of flat owners- reminding landlords and tenants about a potential redevelopment of the area.

Mr Billy Ma, a council member of the Law Society of Hong Kong, told The Standard that such claims of possession are not uncommon.

He said: "But tenants usually continue living in the apartments without paying rent and do not take legal action. Such situations usually go to court only when developers and authorities need to confirm ownership with redevelopment on the cards."

After the verdict was read, Madam Lam walked out of court and ran into a taxi with a jacket shielding her face from the media.