Over the past few years, Hong Kong has seen an ever more increase in the number of expatriates settling in this unique and inspiring city, mostly due to the increasing search for more outside talent from both local and international companies. Upon arrival, one of the most important tasks to tackle for these individuals’ involves renting an apartment. The procedures involved and tenancy laws related can be very different to other cities or countries. This article seeks to illustrate some basic real estate procedures and more importantly tenancy laws involved which I feel are important to know.

Real Estate Agent:

After the establishment of the ‘Estate Agents Authority’ in 1997, also commonly known as ‘EAA’, real estate agents require to be licenced in order to do real estate work. Most agents will provide you with a name card as soon as you meet them and their licence number should clearly be displayed on their name card. Licenced estate agents should also have in possession their official licence card.

The Estate Agency Form:

Prior to viewing properties, (sometimes after), agents require the client to sign a typical estate agency form which lists all the apartments to view or already viewed. If you have signed this form and for some personal reason you are not content with the agent’s service and decide to rent an apartment on the list with a different agent from a different company, you maybe required to pay the previous agent’s company full commission as well as your new one. If you do not pay, you may be liable to further penalty. Request to sign this form is standard practice set by the ‘Estate Agents Authority, (EAA)’.

Important Things To Check Inside The Apartment:

By Hong Kong law, landlords are required to provide appliances, fixtures and fittings in safe and good working condition. Although some agents will check this for you, it is best you check also as you are better to determine what is safe or good working for yourself.

During the viewing process, check for any very obvious pest problems. Having a pest problem during your stay which results in nuisance to neighbours, as a fault to your own bad hygiene may cause you to be kicked out of the apartment by the landlord. This is due to the fact that such negligence is a breach of some terms in Hong Kong’s tenancy law. Further to being kicked out of the property, you may find the landlord deducting amounts from your security deposit in order to fix the problem. However if the fault is not yours, the landlord should be the one to pay.

Check for any leakages. If these are evident, get the landlord to fix the problem before you move in and by law the landlord should pay in order to satisfy the term of providing a safer environment for occupancy. Some leakages can be very problematic, especially if they cause nuisance to the property right below yours. If you cause a big leakage and affect the neighbours, expect to pay for the damages. However in cases where leakages may occur due to result of bad weather conditions, the landlord should be involved to help out the costs for repair.

If the landlord provides a furnished apartment, the items should also be in safe and working order. Besides caring for your own acceptance of the furniture style and items provided, ensure to keep them in good condition as with any damages caused by you, the landlord has the right to request you to pay for the damages.

Some Tenancy Laws To Always Remember During Your Stay:

A standard tenancy law often found is that tenants’ should keep the apartment in good condition with ‘fair wear and tear excepted’. Therefore if you break anything, you fix it or pay for it. Appliances broken down and not to the fault of the tenant should be fixed and paid for by the landlord.

A strict but basic law which applies to all types of property involves noise control. Hong Kong is regarded as a small city and due to the nature of how residential buildings are built and the fact that most people live very close to one another; noise can travel easily to neighbouring apartments. For night time, noise volume should be reduced to a level which does not affect neighbours by 11pm. Disturbances after 11pm is a big no no and neighbours can call the building’s management office to deal with the case. In the event you proceed to ignore neighbours or management offices’ request to quieten down, you may find the police knocking on your door. Creating such nuisance is a breach of some tenancy law and the landlord can kick you out for such actions if made on a continuous basis.

Pay rent on time. The tenancy agreement will most definitely include a term which requests you to pay rent on time and the date to pay should clearly be shown. Usually a small period of time for lateness is allowed for postage time or time for transfers to be completed. This time period is usually also clearly shown on the tenancy agreement. By law the landlord can kick you out for not paying on time and you might lose your security deposit as a result.

An important note to remember is that if you violate any major terms within the tenancy agreement and result in the landlord to kick you out, the landlord may lawfully be able to keep your security deposit fully.

Pets:

A better and more cautious way to know if you can keep pets in the apartment is either yourself or the estate agents helps you to confirm with the management office if pets are allowed. It is not enough for the landlord to say pets are allowed as he or she is only expressing her own acceptance for his or her particular apartment. If the landlord allows but the management does not, the result of this is pets are not allowed. In a case where the landlord accepts and the management office does not but you keep a pet anyway, in the event of any nuisances caused by the pet, you could become solely responsible for breaking some terms within the ‘Occupation Permit’ and pay for the damages caused. A bad example would be request by the management office to get rid of the pet. Nevertheless, landlords’ acceptance is also important as not all like the idea of dogs scratching their floor boards etc.

Tenancy Agreement:

After both parties have signed the tenancy agreement, both parties also share the cost of stamp duty. By law you must pay for this stamp duty as it is compulsory tax, whether you hold a Hong Kong Identity card or overseas passport. It is useful to know also that in the event of any major problems and one party ends up suing the other, an un-stamped tenancy agreement maybe regarded as a void agreement when presented in front of a judge.

Early Termination:

A Tenancy Agreement will most definitely clearly illustrate the agreed terms of stay, such as a 2-year contract with 12 months fixed period. In this example there is usually a break clause where the tenant can terminate after 12-months by providing a 2-month written notice to the landlord to break lease. In this case, minimum lease is 14 months. If for whatever reason you decide you want to terminate the contract or leave the apartment before the fixed period is over, by law the tenant may have to pay rent for at least the rest of the fixed months remaining. In some cases, landlord may expect rent for remaining months up to the 24th month.

Such early termination is not recommendable and therefore you should carefully plan your stay and have put good thought into the lease term for the landlord to accept and then sign the contract. In some cases of early termination, you could avoid having to compensate the rent for remaining months left if you can find an alternative tenant, such as a friend or colleague to move-in as soon as you leave. The landlord would have to accept the new tenant and a new tenancy agreement then needs to be signed between the landlord and new tenant.

I hope the information provided has helped to give you a better understanding on how some of Hong Kong’s tenancy law works in relation to you as the tenant, the landlord of the actual property unit and renting property in Hong Kong. Judging by my experiences within this industry and city, I believe these information to be important.