Following is a question by the Hon Lau Ping-cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (February 12):
Question:
In its Policy Objectives published in October 1999, the Government indicated that it intended to introduce legislation in early 2000 to resolve the problem of missing or illegible Government leases and grants. However, the Administration advised this Council at the end of last year that the introduction of the relevant bill would be deferred to 2004/05. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of cases of failure to complete conveyancing transactions and disputes over land boundaries as a result of missing or illegible Government leases and grants in the past three years;
(b) of the difficulties encountered in drafting the relevant bill; and
(c) whether interim measures will be taken to facilitate conveyancing transactions prior to commencement of the legislation; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a) We do not have a record of the number of relevant failure cases. Disputes over conveyancing transactions and land boundaries between individuals are matters of a private nature and they are normally not reported to the Government.
(b) To facilitate property conveyancing, the proposed legislation aims to provide a mechanism to reconstitute the missing and illegible Government leases and related land documents so that the reconstituted leases and related land documents will have the status of the original ones. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the reconstituted terms and conditions of the land leases will be as close to the original as possible. However, the original and reconstituted terms and conditions may not be completely the same. In the event, the proposed legislation needs to provide avenues for those affected to raise objections and appeals or to seek legal redress in order to help safeguard their property interests.
We are in the process of identifying a workable reconstitution mechanism and we intend to consult the major stakeholders on the proposals before finalising them for introduction into the Legislative Council. The proposed legislation is highly technical and complex, and it will take time to complete the necessary consultation and law drafting procedures. We envisage that the relevant bill may only be ready in 2004/2005.
(c) It should be noted that conveyancing is still possible even if the relevant land lease is missing or illegible. If there is clear and cogent secondary evidence of the contents of a missing or illegible Government lease and of its due execution, the relevant legal requirement for conveyancing is fulfilled and property transaction can take place. Other than this, the Lands Department also deals with missing and illegible Government leases on a case by case basis by way of surrender and regrant of land. Under this mechanism, the land owner surrenders all his interests in the lot concerned and Government regrants the same lot to him upon mutually agreed terms and conditions.
End/Wednesday, February 12, 2003
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