To combat the misuse of public housing, the Housing Authority has deployed new tactics. Housing chief Winnie Ho Wing-yin has announced that there will be a continuation of increased random checks on tenant property declarations and enhanced scrutiny of tenant assets, including the valuation of vehicles and checking for properties owned by tenants in mainland China and overseas. The news comes before the Authority's new round of application reviews, which is set to commence on April 1st.
How does the Housing Department verify vehicle ownership among public housing tenants? The department will increase scrutiny of the vehicle ownership status of public housing residents by obtaining vehicle valuations and other relevant information from the Transport Department, using license plate numbers. Should a vehicle be confirmed as belonging to a Housing Authority tenant who does not own a purchased unit, the value of the privately-owned vehicle will be included in the calculation of the tenant's assets.
However, considering the depreciation of second-hand vehicles, after 10 to 20 years, the market value of a luxury car may not be significant. How then does the government determine whether a vehicle is considered high-value and identify wealthy public housing tenants?
According to publicly available information, the reporting forms list the methods for declaring different types of vehicles and calculating their depreciation. Public housing tenants who are unsure about how to calculate depreciation should consult Housing Authority staff for guidance and must avoid concealing or making false declarations.
To intensify the campaign against tenancy abuse, the Housing Department employs various strategies. These include recruiting retired disciplined services personnel to augment the team, developing methods to counteract tenancy abuse, bolstering online surveillance, and scrutinizing instances where public housing is rented out or used for unauthorized residential purposes online. The aim is to reclaim misused units by employing a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach.
Is checking the vehicle value of public housing tenants effective? As the saying goes, "For every problem, there is a solution." If the government checks whether public housing tenants own vehicles, these tenants could park their cars in private parking lots instead of estate parking lots to evade government scrutiny, although this would increase the cost of renting a parking space.
To address this loophole, the Housing Department might collaborate with the Transport Department to actively share information about public housing tenants. This would enable the Transport Department to verify vehicle ownership, facilitating the identification of any unreported or falsely declared cases. Such a strategy would create a proactive inspection model.
If public housing tenants choose to park their cars in other private parking lots, the most immediate impact would be on estate parking spaces. As public housing tenants gradually give up their parking spaces, the demand for public housing parking spaces will decrease. When supply exceeds demand, it may be necessary to reduce rental fees to attract customers, thereby affecting the rental value and worth of the parking spaces.
Based on this scenario, it is anticipated that public housing parking spaces may be impacted. Simultaneously, this could invigorate the private parking market. However, it should be noted that many residential parking lots come with ownership restrictions, and some are only available for rent to residents of the same estate. Consequently, public housing tenants must exercise caution when choosing such parking options.
The issue of tenancy abuse has been persistent and is challenging to eliminate entirely. Therefore, it is expected that the Housing Department will continue to implement additional random inspection checks or introduce a reporting system, and will also likely increase the number of personnel dedicated to random checks, all in an effort to uncover a greater number of tenancy abuse cases.
