Our property management team is responsible for overseeing the daily management of the facilities in the estates managed by us. Our property and maintenance officers regularly inspect the facilities in the estates with a checklist of items (which include lighting systems, water supply systems, drainage pipes, fire alarm systems, fire extinguishing systems, ventilation systems and lifts) to ensure the proper functioning of the building facilities. They are also responsible for overseeing the hygiene level of the estate, garbage collection and arrangement of disposal of garbage. Urgent repair work is arranged or directly performed by the maintenance department of our Group or the on-site maintenance team of the relevant property. Our staff will conduct routine inspection and all defects identified will be reported to our maintenance team for placing orders for rectification. One of the important functions which our property management team performs is to handle emergency situations which pose threats to the safety to the lives and properties of the residents and occupiers. The types of emergency situations include extreme weather conditions such as typhoon, flooding, fire hazard, criminal activities committed in the estates and disruption to public utilities services. We, as a property manager, may take steps to resolve the situations by

• inspecting and rectifying any minor defects and/or reporting for further follow-up and repair work to be conducted by designated contractors;
• carrying out customer services including notification and rendering related assistance;
• in case of emergency or accident, evacuating the residents or occupants and informing the police, Fire Services Department or other departments or utility companies;
• arranging technicians or relevant contractors to rectify the defects or to resume temporary supply of services; (v) fencing off the affected area and putting up warning notice; and
• maintaining order and crowd control. We may need to submit a report to our customers in respect of major accidents with evaluation on the follow-up actions to be taken.

Our property management team monitors renovation and maintenance projects taking place within the area of the estates. We provide complaint and enquiry facilities, handle the residents’ complaints and enquiries as to our services and their living environment including cleanliness of the estate and nuisance from neighbours and maintain registers and records of the complaints received and the follow-up actions taken. We also provide and maintain a 24-hour centralised control room with security guards on duty, which allows tenants and occupiers to make enquiries, lodge complaints or report to us any emergency matters. All residents complaints are generally handled by property managers and, where appropriate, are reported to district managers.

We provide the following tenancy management services to the Housing Authority for managing the tenants of PRH estates:

• for new tenant, prepare the tenancy agreement, clean up the apartment and handing over the vacant possession of the apartment to the new tenant on behalf of the Housing Authority;
• assist the Housing Authority in enforcing the terms and conditions of the tenancy agreement, including detecting and taking enforcement action againstnon-occupation, sub-letting, unauthorised occupants, unauthorised pets keeping, unauthorised alteration of the premises or change of user of the premises;
• assist the Housing Authority in administering the Marking Scheme and if we discover any breach of the tenancy agreement or misdeed under the Marking Scheme by any resident, we will report and make recommendations on the appropriate enforcement actions to the Housing Authority. In case of serious or repeated breaches of the tenancy agreement or misdeed under the Marking Scheme, we would prepare for the Housing Authority a notice to be served on the offending tenant and we could assist the Housing Authority in evicting the offending tenant upon receiving confirmation from the Housing Authority; and
• assist the Housing Authority to manage tenancies by vetting applications of addition or removal of family members allowed to occupy the unit, assessing the tenant’s qualifications to continue to occupy the unit by his/her family income, evaluating his/her eligibility for the size of the unit, assessing whether the tenants are entitled to any rental discount under the relevant Housing Authority’s concessionary policies and promoting and explaining the relevant Housing Authority policies affecting the tenants and occupiers.

Generally, the rent and management fees collection services provided by our Group to our customers include

• collection of rents, rates or other charges for public estates;
• collection of management fees for private estates;
• payment of disbursements and expenses of the estates;
• recording and maintaining the account of our customers; and
• preparation of annual budgets.

Our Group is responsible for collection of monthly payment of all rents, rates or other charges payable by the tenants or licensees of the public estates on behalf of the Housing Authority and the property management fees payable by the landlords on behalf of our customers in private sector. In addition to the collection of rents, rates, other charges or management fees on behalf of our customers, we also assist our customers in carrying out follow-up actions for arrears of rents, rates, other charges or management fees. If any amount is unpaid after the due date, we will remind the defaulting tenant, licensee or landlord to pay the outstanding sum. If the outstanding sum continue to be in default, we will make recommendations on the appropriate further actions to our customers. Our accounts staff are in charge of the accounting and finance services and record and maintain the account of our customers. In addition, we prepare for the Housing Authority daily income report recording money received and banked during the day, a money income report and a monthly rent reconciliation statement which summarises the rent collection status. Moreover, we are responsible for finance and budgetary control of both public and private estates by drawing up annual budget of the estates with estimated operating expenses for the upcoming financial year.

Creative Property, our principal operating subsidiary, has been a holder of a security company licence issued by the Security and Guarding Services Industry Authority pursuant to the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance since September 2004. Our Group provides security services to ensure that the properties are well secured and safety of residents and users of properties are protected. In general, our daily security management services include patrolling the common areas, roof top and public facilities, guarding the entrance lobby, access control, making records of visitors and stopping trespassers, maintaining peace and order within the estates and stopping vandalism, monitoring the function of all building services systems including lifts, electricity, water and fire fight equipment, monitoring the alarm systems, hawkers, obstruction, unauthorised parking and no smoking in the non-smoking areas. Our security guards also investigate and make follow-up records of the complaints lodged by residents and report disputes amongst residents. In addition to the daily security duties, we also perform duties which include

• liaise with the Fire Services Department and other relevant government departments regularly to draw up evacuation plans;
• attend and perform emergency duties as and when required such as reporting to the police or Fire Services Department and evacuating the residents; and
• carry out regular inspection to ensure the proper functioning of the CCTV security system, emergency back-up electricity system, door lock system and firefighting equipment.

To maintain a hygienic living environment for the residents of estates under our management, we offer different types of cleaning services which vary in terms of the scope of the services, frequency of cleaning and number of cleaning staff required. Scope of cleaning services include  cleaning of common areas, commercial and related ancillary facilities, parking lots, roads, and other public areas within the estates and maintain them in clean and sanitary condition, including the provision of door-to-door refuse collection services to the residential units, collecting and disposing of waste generated from commercial and related ancillary facilities, parking lots, estates roads, and other public area within the estates, removing abandoned articles in the common areas,  cleaning and disinfecting common areas such as lifts, playground facilities, fans and other facilities, carrying out inspection on the surface drainage systems and clearing clogged drains. As an ancillary part of our cleaning services, we also provide services which include

• mosquito, rodent and pest control in common areas;
• promote recycling in the estates by providing recycling bins for different types of refuse, separating the recycling materials from the household refuse, implementing programmes or initiatives on promoting waste reduction and distributing garbage bags which are degradable to residential units; and
• overall landscaping and horticulture of the estates, including watering the plants regularly, maintaining all planted area in neat and tidy manner, carrying out improvement or replacement to keep the landscape vegetation in good condition and conducting inspection of the plants and trees in the estates from time to time.

We carry out regular or minor repair and maintenance to ensure that the properties under our management are in a safe and proper state of repair. Our technicians carry out necessary minor repair and building services and urgent building maintenance works as set out in the property management services contracts, which typically include clearing clogged drainage, adjusting hinges of gates, doors and windows, providing sandbags for temporary protection, fencing off and putting up warning signs to dangerous site, slope or defective equipment and sealing up or breaking in vacant flats.

Moreover, upon the commencement of our property management services contracts, we conduct inspection in respect of the conditions of estates, such as walls and floors, staircases, plumbing and drainage installations, estate roads, covered walkways and make reports of the defects or irregularities and check if there are any unauthorised building work and/or building services work in the building. We will then make recommendations with regard to the repair and maintenance of buildings and building facilities and, with prior consent of our customers, carry out or coordinate the necessary repair and maintenance work. Only basic or simple repair and maintenance work in relation to electrical fittings and drainage are performed by our Group’s maintenance employees. Other maintenance or repair work such as lift maintenance and security system maintenance can only be performed by specialist contractors. Our Group will coordinate and assist customers in engaging such specialist contractors.

We provide project management services for the substantial repair, maintenance or building work carried out by external consultants or contractors. The usual types of work involved are repair, alteration, addition and improvement work relating to electrical, water supply and fire services, air conditioning and mechanical ventilation, lifts and escalators and security alarm systems. As a project manager, our scope of work generally includes:

• preparing plans, drawings and specifications, estimation on budgets, tender and contract documents;
• analysing the returned tenders and making appropriate recommendations to our customers;
• monitoring and supervising the execution of the works;
• inspecting the work quality and certifying completion; and
• preparing and settling accounts for the fees payable to the contractors on behalf of our private customers.

For Housing Authority, we will also take follow-up actions if defects of works are discovered after completion of the building works within the defect liability period stated in the contract.