Action for Housing have issued a statement questioning the Government following the potential handover of vacant flats in need of repair to a private landlord.

A statement from Action for Housing follows below:

On the 1st of October 2024 we wrote to the Principal Housing Officer informing him that it had come to our notice that the Housing Authority had handed over two vacant flats at Alameda Estate and possibly one at Stanley Building to a private landlord. This came under an agreement by which the landlord would repair these empty flats at his own expense.  He would then be allowed to rehouse private sitting-tenants of his, whom he wanted to re-allocate, thus enabling him to empty his dilapidated property and renovate it for the lucrative open market.

The Housing Department has now answered our letter and has confirmed that a landlord with sitting tenants had offered to fully refurbish two government flats at his own expense.  These flats had, according to the Housing Authority, been left vacant due to the high renovation costs which the government was unable to cover, and so since the offer came at no cost to the taxpayer, the government accepted the deal.

This startling reply raises several questions. Firstly, why were these flats not repaired when they first became vacant and were in a reasonable state of habitation? Instead, they have been left vacant for years and allowed to suffer further deterioration. This has been a clear case of blatant neglect and mismanagement. It also begs the question, why weren’t these properties added to the rent and repair scheme stock? We have also learned that the tenants in question, whom the private landlord has re-housed at Alameda Estate, were 16th on the housing waiting list.  This means that as a consequence of this ‘special deal’ these tenants have been allowed to jump the queue to the detriment of those other applicants ahead of them. This we think is grossly unfair and makes a mockery of the much-trumpeted policy of fair allocations through chronological order.

Lastly, and no less important, we wish to know whether this is an isolated case, deplorable as it is, or whether it is now the policy of the government to hand over vacant flats which are deemed to be too expensive to refurbish to private landlords for them to repair and use at will, as has happened in this case.