Hong Kong is putting in place a verification regime for proxy votes at property owners’ corporation meetings, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak said on Saturday.

Checks requiring both parties to sign and declare are, she said, "more effective" than a prescribed cap on the number of proxy votes a flat owner's representative can hold.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, Mak said the government has received 550 written submissions from a month-long public consultation on proposed amendments to the Building Management Ordinance.

The submissions, she pointed out, broadly supported clearer thresholds for major maintenance works and stronger proxy requirements but raised practical concerns.

Mak said half of the submissions opposed the proposed cap on how many proxy votes one person may hold, citing the difficulty of applying a numerical limit once forms are sealed in a box and opened collectively.

Instead, she said, both parties would have to sign off on the forms and leave contact details, with the owner declaring they know about the meeting and agenda, and the representative declaring they know the person authorising the proxy representation is the genuine owner of the property.

“Verification is more effective than a prescribed cap," Mak said.

"Many owners and industry friends said verification is better able than a prescribed cap to ensure the proxy system is not abused."

Mak said the biggest difficulty in the past was proving whether a person knew the owner was genuine or bogus and had actually authorised the proxy, which was why the government would be requiring both parties to sign.

On major maintenance works, she said the statutory quorum – the 10 percent attendance needed for an owners’ meeting to proceed – will stay unchanged.

However, in-person voting thresholds will be tiered, with each set at the lower of the percentage or the owner count: five percent or 100 owners where the apportioned cost exceeds HK$30,000 per unit; eight percent or 150 owners where it exceeds HK$80,000; and 10 percent or 200 owners where it exceeds HK$120,000.

The tiered thresholds, Mak said, are intended to encourage more owners to vote as the apportioned cost rises and to play a more active role in building management and maintenance works.

She added that proxy votes cannot be used to meet those in-person thresholds.

A briefing session, Mak said, must be held seven days before the owners’ meeting, after tender results and analysis are available.

"If no briefing session is held, under the law they will not be allowed to vote on the major maintenance works at the subsequent owners’ meeting," she said.


Edited by Robert Kemp