Veteran lawyer seeks judicial review over alleged illegal structures on his home

A veteran Hong Kong barrister ordered to demolish alleged illegal structures on his home has lodged a judicial challenge after building authorities refused to consider a constitutional argument he raised earlier.

Senior counsel Alan Hoo’s lawyers applied to the High Court for a judicial review over the extent of jurisdiction of the Appeal Tribunal (Buildings Ordinance), saying the statutory body was entitled to decide whether an order to remove unauthorised structures would violate homeowners’ fundamental rights.

The 74-year-old applicant argued that his rights to protection of his home and privacy had been infringed by a Buildings Department order dated January 23 last year instructing him to rectify alleged illegal alterations to his house at Seascape near Pok Fu Lam on Hong Kong Island within 60 days.

Those alterations include certain structures erected on the roof of a staircase hood, three structures installed on and over the house’s roof and one on a planter on the ground floor, according to the writ seen by the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

Hoo’s lawyers said the alleged unauthorised works had been in place since the barrister bought the property in 1979 and posed no immediate danger to public safety that would necessitate their immediate removal.

They also argued that the order would in effect evict Hoo from his family home for six months during the most critical period when he needed to recover from a bacterial infection that had left him paralysed and requiring a wheelchair since March last year.