Luxury homeowner fined HK$255,800 after eighth prosecution over illegal renovations

The owner of a luxury house in Hong Kong has been fined HK$255,800 (US$32,600) for persistently failing to comply with a statutory removal order even after previously being prosecuted seven times for illegal site works and unauthorised structures found at his property.
The Buildings Department said on Tuesday that the owner of a Beaulieu Peninsula detached house on Yu Chui Street in Tuen Mun was convicted and fined at Tuen Mun Court last Friday. It was the eighth time the owner had faced prosecution for ignoring the removal order, which was issued in 1993.
“Failing to comply with the removal order, the owner had been prosecuted by the Buildings Department seven times and was fined and sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, upon convictions by the court,” a department spokesman said.
“As the owner persisted in not complying with the removal order, the owner was prosecuted for the eighth time.”
According to the department, the unauthorised building works included site formation works for constructing an unauthorised platform of about 122 square metres (1,292 square feet) on a slope adjoining an approved garden.
Unauthorised structures were also found that extended the floors at different levels of the block, amounting to a total floor area of about 57 square metres.
The remaining unauthorised works were the erection of a floor slab over a space near an approved dining room and removal of parts of the house’s external walls.
The owner had not sought prior approval and consent from the department for those alterations.
Under the Buildings Ordinance, the Buildings Department can issue statutory orders to owners and require them to remove unauthorised structures.
Failing to comply with a removal order can result in a maximum fine of HK$200,000 and a year in prison, and a further fine of up to HK$20,000 for each day of non-compliance.
The department said HK$155,880, or 61 per cent of the total fine that the court imposed on Friday, was for daily penalties.

According to supplementary information provided by the department, it first inspected the property in April 1992 and issued a removal order on nine unauthorised building works in February 1993.
In 2019, the owner appointed an authorised professional to handle the order, but the professional had not submitted any proposal before resigning in 2021. The owner later appointed another professional in the same year.
The department inspected the property in August 2024 and found at least five of the nine items had yet to be rectified. The professional resigned in December of the same year.
The owner subsequently hired other professionals, who submitted a preliminary slope remedial report to the department in January last year. Five months later, the department told them to submit a slope demolition and restoration proposal.
In December 2025, the department’s inspection found that at least six of the nine items had yet to be rectified, including the site formation works and the extra floor spaces.
Beaulieu Peninsula was among the luxury estates inspected by authorities after landslides triggered by a heavy downpour in September 2023 exposed unauthorised structures at Redhill Peninsula in Tai Tam.
According to the latest available information, the department reportedly initiated prosecutions against owners of 25 houses in Beaulieu Peninsula, as of mid-2025.
Following rampant flouting of building laws, the Development Bureau proposed to amend the ordinance by increasing relevant penalties, reducing the prosecution threshold and introducing new offences.
The government plans to submit proposed amendments to the Legislative Council by the end of this year, alongside proposals to strengthen oversight of renovation works raised in the wake of the Wang Fuk Court fire last November. The deadly blaze tore through all but one of the Tai Po estate’s eight towers, killing 168 people and displacing about 5,000 others.