Vigilante war on property sales agents 地產街招層層疊

Vigilante war on property sales agents 

Prior to elections, the Lands Department instructed the removal of all banners from the roadside to make way for campaign banners by the candidates. 

With the September Legislative Council elections postponed, Hongkongers have a rare opportunity to enjoy clean streets. No more broken and sagging banners spoiling the view of our pavements, planters and shop fronts. 

However, what also stands out is the mess of bills and posters glued to all manner of street furniture, lamp posts and traffic signs. Despite this being illegal nothing is hidden. Phone numbers are visible in large fonts. 

The law is clear. Under Section 104A(1) of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap.132), any person displaying or affixing a bill or poster on Government land without permission commits an offence, and is liable to a maximum penalty of $10,000 and a daily fine of $300 upon conviction. 

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) officers can remove the commercial publicity materials and even recover the removal costs from the persons concerned. But they hardly do. I have written to the FEHD pointing out the obvious: The phone numbers identifying the property sales agents, the dominant culprits, are right there. It is claimed that these are often disposable phone cards and that agents argue they are being framed by their competitors. Only when FEHD catch a person in the act of posting bills will they issue a meagre fixed penalty of $1,500 under another law, the Public Cleanliness and Obstruction Ordinance (Cap. 570). 

This is no deterrent for these agents hoping to cash in on hefty commissions. We wrote to the Estate Agents Authority on numerous occasions, but they replied lamely that they can only control licensed agents and that a phone number alone is no evidence. 

So the mess continues. Once in a while cleaners can be seen scraping the posters off. But as fast as they clean up, new ones appear with ever greater amounts of glue and tape. 

That is, until they meet my ‘friends’, residents who are determined to clean our streets. They sent me pictures of people hanging bills. They take down every commercial poster, banner and bill from railings, lamp posts and traffic signs, dumping them in the nearest bin (after they sent me a picture or two). Legal or not, until the Government gets its act together and prosecutes the people who answer the phone numbers, vigilante clean ups appear to be the only way forward. Please help my ‘friends’ and keep Hong Kong clean by removing any estate agents posters.

(Based on 'Vigilante war on property sales agents' by Paul Zimmerman published in Southside Magazine, 1 September 2020)

地產街招層層疊

地政總署早前按選舉條例，要求移除所有路邊橫額，以預留空間予立法會選舉候選人。及後政府押後選舉，意外令香港人重見沒有殘舊橫額的街道，能欣賞清靜的路邊景觀。

只是，一些地產經紀見縫插針把街招傳單張貼在不同的路邊設施，縱然卻肆無忌憚，聯絡電話等資料在當眼位置清晰可見。這個問題的相關法例毫不含糊，根據《公眾衛生及市政條例》（Cap. 132）第 104 章 A(1)，任何人未經准許展示或張貼招貼或海報，即屬犯罪，違者一經定罪可判處最高 1 萬元罰款及每日 300 元罰款。

食物環境衛生署有權移除宣傳單張，並要求相關人士承擔移除單張所涉及的費用，只是署方對此無動於衷。就最常見的街招來源 — 地產經紀，我曾向食環署指出這些街招上都清晰展示他們的聯絡電話，對方回覆指這些電話通常是使用儲值電話卡，涉事經紀則會辯稱這些街招是其競爭對手的陷害手段。署方指出，只有在張貼一刻當場發現，他們才能以《定額罰款（公眾地方潔淨及阻礙）條例》（Cap. 570）處罰不癢不痛的 1,500 元罰款。1,500 元的罰款比起買賣豪宅所能賺取的佣金只算是「零頭」，試問又如何阻嚇他們的違法行為？

現時政府沒有任何實質阻嚇措施。我們多次就此去信地產代理監管局，對方卻無力的回覆指他們只能規管持牌經紀，而單憑該電話並不足成起訴的證據。

街招亂局依舊。清潔工人偶爾會進行清理，但轉眼間，舊街招留下的膠水痕跡便被新的傳單蓋上，唯一不同是他們這次用上更強力的膠水。

這一切卻因我的朋友們而出現曙光。幾位居民決心清理我們的街道，他們把張貼街招的一幕拍下來並發送給我，隨後把街招撕下並棄置於最近的垃圾筒。合法與否，在政府能有效打擊亂貼街招之前，這個由市民自發清理的做法看似是唯一解決方法。希望你亦能和我的朋友一起，清理這些影響市容的地產街招。

(立場新聞2020年9月8日連結: 地產街招層層疊)