Difficulties in executing the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (MBIS) for existing private buildings in Hong Kong

• Hong Kong is a densely populated city with a plethora of ageing buildings around.
• This paper purports to elucidate the major difficulties in executing MBIS.
• An industry-wide survey was launched to solicit various views and opinions.
• MBIS is an effective strategy in resolving the problem of building deterioration.

Hong Kong is a highly developed and densely populated city with a multitude of ageing buildings. To maintain the Hong Kong's ageing building stock properly and promote public safety in a sustainable manner, it is crucial to ensure that building owners will take up the responsibility for inspecting and repairing their own properties on a regular basis. The Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (MBIS) has been regarded as an effective measure in resolving the neglected building maintenance problems. However, there will also be some major difficulties encountered during implementation. This paper aims to investigate the genuine difficulties in executing MBIS for old private buildings in Hong Kong, based on an industry-wide empirical questionnaire survey. The survey findings reflected that the most profound difficulties in implementing MBIS include: (1) Difficulty in co-ordinating the individual flat owners for carrying out building inspection and necessary repair and maintenance works; (2) Disagreements or disputes amongst individual flat owners, owners' corporation or property management company will hinder the implementation process; and (3) Lack of property owners' initiative or owners' co-operation. After determining the key difficulties of MBIS, the research study would be significant to generate valuable insights into developing effective recommendations or measures for alleviating the barriers to MBIS success in future execution.