URA Implements Four Initiatives to Accelerate the Hiring of Consultants and Contractors to Assist Building Owners in Organising Building Maintenance
After two rounds of "Operation Building Bright 2.0" (OBB 2.0), the Government and the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) jointly launched the third round of OBB 2.0 last April, which received a total of 1,264 eligible applications. During the implementation of the first and second rounds of OBB 2.0, the URA noted that some building owners were facing challenges in organising maintenance and repair works due to the lack of professional knowledge and experience, or struggling to reach a consensus even after extensive discussions, resulting in delays in maintenance and repairs. Some buildings did not carry out any maintenance works even after receiving mandatory building inspection notices for an extended period.
Furthermore, a series of incidents involving the spalling of concrete or renderings from building facades that happened last year revealed that some buildings had not been properly maintained. In view of this, the Chief Executive proposed in the 2023 Policy Address an overall review of the OBB 2.0 workflow to facilitate owners to expedite the appointment of consultants and contractors, conduct building inspections, and organise maintenance and repair works as soon as possible while enhancing the supervision process.
Over the past year, the URA team conducted a comprehensive review and optimisation of the OBB 2.0 workflow to help the owners or Owners' Corporations (OCs) participating in the third round of OBB 2.0 to expedite building maintenance and repair works through the following four initiatives:
1. Compilation of a Pre-qualification List
To address the issue of owners or OCs lacking professional knowledge and experience in selecting consultants and registered contractors, and struggling to reach a consensus, the URA has compiled a pre-qualification list of consultants and contractors for owners and OCs’ reference. Eligible applicants of the third round of OBB 2.0 are required to invite service providers from this list to submit bids via the Smart Tender – E-tendering platform.
This initiative not only saves owners’ or OCs’ time in understanding and selecting consultants and contractors but, more importantly, ensures that the service providers on the list, gatekept by the URA, possess the necessary skills and experience in carrying out maintenance and repair works. This enables owners or OCs to focus on evaluating the bid prices, thereby accelerating the decision-making process and the award of contracts.
2. Development of Progress Schedule for Maintenance and Repair Works
The URA team has developed a progress schedule for the participants of the third round of OBB 2.0 to track the three stages of maintenance and repair works, covering: (i) Appointing consultants, (ii) Submitting tender documents, and (iii) Appointing registered contractor. This schedule clearly outlines the tasks and timelines required for each stage, tailored to the number of residential units in different buildings and estates. Owners and OCs joining the third round of OBB 2.0, along with their property management companies, must adhere to this schedule.
3. Timely Intervention to Issue Maintenance and Repair Tender Documents
If owners or OCs fail to meet the required deadlines of the three stages as listed in the aforementioned schedule, the URA will, on their behalf, commence the tendering process for the appointment of consultants and contractors.
In light of the repeated extension requests from applicants of the first and second rounds of OBB2.0, which have caused significant delays in the maintenance and repair processes, participants in the third round of OBB 2.0 are permitted to request an extension only once at each stage, provided they offer sound justification within the deadline. Failure to meet these requirements within the specified timeframe may result in the revocation of the Approval-in-Principle letter and termination of their subsidy applications.
4. Compilation of Tender Documents for the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme
The URA will require owners and their appointed consultants to prepare two sets of tender documents when recruiting contractors. One set should cover the full scope of maintenance and repairs, including the “prescribed inspection” and “prescribed repairs” under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (MBIS) along with any “additional repairs”. The second set should solely cover the “prescribed inspection” and “prescribed repairs”. This ensures that the mandatory inspections and repairs from MBIS will not be affected even if owners or OCs cannot reach a consensus on “additional repairs” items, thereby preventing delays in essential inspections and repairs.
The URA anticipates that the above four initiatives in support of the third round of OBB 2.0 will significantly reduce the time taken to appoint building repair consultants, submit tender documents and award contracts after receiving the Approval-in-Principle letter from an average of approximately 43 months to 19 months.
In promoting building rehabilitation, the URA not only assists the Government in implementing various subsidy schemes but has also allocated additional resources to develop different measures and provide comprehensive technical support. This aims to encourage owners to fulfil their responsibilities and expedite their organisation of building maintenance works.
Currently, each case officer in the URA's building rehabilitation team already needs to handle an average of approximately 80 subsidy applications. Therefore, if owners participating in the subsidy schemes are passive or sluggish, they would lead to further delays in maintenance and repair works. In such cases, the URA will have no choice but to cancel their subsidy applications and relocate these resources to owners who are proactive in maintaining their buildings, thereby ensuring the effective use of public resources. It does not work to rely solely on ‘’external support” from the URA to slow down the ageing of buildings. The collective commitment of owners to undertake regular maintenance and repairs is the key to enhancing building safety, improving building conditions, and creating better living environments.