What's happening now?

HI everyone, yes it is true: they got rid of me too.

But I hear there are new issues in DB with HKR's management?

Would love to hear about them. Post a comment:

HKR at it again

Well HKR is at it again. They are closing another fine DB institution, the Beer Bay, despite its obvious popularity and patronage by so many DB residents.

The Beer Bay was popular with many residents, did not default on its lease, and, though it offered to pay more rent, it was denied a new lease by HKR.

So Why then? To any normal person it seems strange that HKR should close them down. Particularly since HKR is always trying to convince us residents that it cares about what we want and thus make DB better for us all.

Between the group of us here, we have over 50 years experience in HK and we have learnt that there are usually calculated and selfish reasons behind acts perpetrated here that seemingly make no sense. Acts and policies that would not be acceptable in mature, democratic and pluralistic societies, regularly get instituted in Hong Kong. HK is becoming more like China everyday, a place where individuals have no rights, and where there is no actual rule of law.

But the main reason behind the termination of the Beer Bay:

HKR wants (like the government of HK itself!) to get rid of the complaining Westerners here once and for all!! Ha Hah!!

I am probably joking (I hope at least) but am I.....?

Don't be fooled by obfuscation. Even though it was Westerners and their pursuit of a reasonably decent lifestyle that made DB what it is, HKR figures that there are now enough middle-class local Chinese in HK to market to, and as such HKR figures they can now accelerate their efforts to make this switch and begin filling new developments, and the secondary re-sale market, with local Chinese buyers and tenants.

But why, you ask, do they want to remove foreigners? For the same reason as the Mainland and HK governments: the foreigners tend to stand up for their human and civil rights too actively, and thus they "upset the harmony" of a society that is basically geared to making a small elite even richer.

We have been told that the reason for HKR's strategy is that there was a marked increase in the activism of DB residents in the past few years, and that HKR believes this is being lead by Westerners. Apparently this reached a peak over the various renovations issues.

It seems that the furore and protests, primarily from Western residents, over the ridiculous Beach Village renovations and the 1.5 year plaza destruction really angered HKR. We have heard that not only were they angry that their management and dominance over DB was challenged, but that they also lost a lot of face in HK, and subsequently also resented the steps that had to be taken in order to both understand and appease the deeply-angered residents effected.

At the time of the Beach Village renovations there were several blogs initiated; with residents holding meetings, complaining, petitions etc. and local media picked up on the story with several articles being written about the myriad problems of life in DB. The basic gist of these articles was that these problems were caused by the avariciousness of the developer, HKR, who insists on owning everything here, including the companies that do the renovations and provide the basic services.

The uproar and subsequent bad publicity, city-wide, apparently made a certain Mr. C turn red, and since the most vociferous complainers seemed to be the Gwielos (the Cantonese word for Westerners which means Evil White Person) it was reasoned that the quickest way to get back to "business as usual" was to get rid of them once and for all. (Little do they realise that they really don't have to actually "do" anything; they just simply need to continue with the same me-first, profit-before-people attitude and all the foreigners would eventually leave anyway:)

So, though they did gain insight into their residents needs and desires, they never-the-less decided that treating people fairly was not worth the trouble. Instead of having to adopt best-practices and governing DB for the sake of its stakeholders, customers and residents, they calculated that local people are more "complacent" and "docile" and would not stand in the way of their corporate profits as much as Westerners. And so it became the right time to "move the Gweilos (Evil White People) out of DB."

We have not heard many details of the plan, other than the strategy of "marketing more towards local people" and "providing services as the Chinese people want" (as it is referred to apparently in the HKR boardroom) but from our long experience of life in DB under HKR, here are our predictions for the future:

1) Watch for a subtle but consistent shift to occur in the make-up and composition of the facilities, services and events offered in DB toward things local and away from those pursued by Westerners. For instance, look for less English services being offered, retailers and restaurants popular with Western people to be slowly phased out by non-renewal of leases (or by ridiculous asking prices,) as well as a renewed effort by HKR to turn the area behind DB, the hills, rock-pools and hiking areas, into a second golf course (this was floated in the 90's and we predict it'll be back on the table very soon.)

2) We also predict a sudden and mysterious change in both access and density within DB: watch for more taxis and other cars to be allowed on roads here, as well as an increase in the number of golf-carts licensed, and most significantly, watch for HKR to start increasing the density of their new developments, mostly by building larger buildings with more small flats, and by lowering the actual, useable square footage of new flats with things like protruding window-boxes etc.

3) HKR will get approval for all this from the HK government because the HK Government is in the pocket of the big developers that run this economy, and because the Cha family is perceived as being connected on the mainland and thus individuals within the HK government are afraid of them.

Let's hope that in 20 years DB will not be just another crap suburb/housing development in HK, with ridiculous density, cheap and dirty restaurants and stores, and lousy but expensive services.

Refund from Renovation

I have found out that there is extra money left over after the renovation. All residents should petition their landlords for their portion of the money.

After the Destruction

Here we are in September and our hallways are still dirty and smelly. Our units are still inundated with cockroaches and ants, and the green areas infront of the units are still ruined. We have no secure main door, no garbage closet, and the work in and around the units continues, usually on Saturdays.

Here are the main issues we have remaining in our buildings:

1) Security: we were supposed to get a new main-door security system. Where is it? Currently there is a door lock, but it is opened by pressing a button only, there is no code entry required, no key needed, nothing. A robber has only to push the button and the door lock releases! So why have it? Is this a security system? We guess this is what HKR considers security. Morons.

2) New hallways: So we endured the "hacking off" demolition in the common areas and hallway for....what? We have new tiles and a brighter wallpaint, but the tile is already stained and dirty and HKR's cleaning staff have not even bothered to clean it. Do they think because it is new tile, and a lighter shade, that they can now save more money by not cleaning it regularly? As usual, calls to "customer service" (yeah right, what a joke, more like "customer torture") produced no results. There was nothing wrong with the concrete walls in our unit, so why were they hacked off? The new walls are the same cheap concrete, will they be hacked off again soon?

3) The "new" mailboxes are a joke. Ours aleady has a broken lock and the material they are made of is cheap and prone to mold. Good job owners/HKR.

4) The green areas around the units are still muddy and ruined.

5) Outside lights not working, paint stains, splashed concrete on our balconies etc. Still there, still ugly, HKR doing nothing.

6) Where are the garbage closets? Why are the old smelly ones still there, but sealed up? We are still required to put our garbage outside in a bin that is usually over-flowing. Still a good breeding ground for rats and roaches.


But anyway, thank goddness the scaffolding is gone!

Though the noise and dirt persists: In our row of units there have been 4 interior renovations since the exterior renovation ended, some buildings are now enduring 2 interior renovations at the same time! That's 3 more months of noise and dirt for those poor residents. Of course all this is allowed by HKR, as the owners are more important than the residents; owners, after HKR themselves, can disrupt the peace of the residents whenever they like, and money hungry as they are, like HKR they have no consideration for residents.... or common sense, or common decency. They just rip it all out as cheaply as possible, which means more insane jackhammer noise, dirt, distruption and shattered lives for the residents of that building.

Yes, jackhammers on Saturday morning again. Cigarette butts and spit in the hallways, etc. etc. The usual cacophany of crap from this "unique DB lifestyle."

So we are still suffering from the usual bullshit, thanks to money-hungry owners who just have to rip out and replace the interiors of their investment flats in the hope of finally being able to rent it
out at the highest rate possible.

Dear Greedy owner:
Did your unit sit empty for 3-6 months with no prospects, then after a HK$250,000-400,000 "complete flat renovation", were you finally able to rent it out for almost what it was supposedly getting pre-97?

Was it a 2 year lease to a young family from overseas, unlikely to renew?

If so, was all of this worth it?

Do the math: you lose fool!!

SCMP Article re: Beach Village Resident's anger Sunday June 25th 2006

Thanks to the SCMP for highliting our plight.

However, as most of us suspect, there is more to this story than what has been done to our homes and lives for the past 8 months.

As anyone can see there was a lot of work done that was unnecessary. It was also done in the cheapest and most economical manner possible FOR THE CONTRACTORS.

These savings were not passed on to the owners.

WHY?

Here is one theory:

HKR is the developer and owner of DB, and they own most of the companies that make money off of the community.

They own Hanniford Construction Co. (currently building the new ESF school by Siena) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of HKR.

We suspect that the main contractor for the BV "renovation" Kung Kee company, is either owned by, or paying a "kickback" to either members of the Cha family or to HKR itself or Hanniford.....

Is this a case of personal corruption? Or is it abuse of corporate governance (HKR is a listed company on the HKSE.)

Who should look into this:

ICAC or the HK Securities Regulator?????

Send emails to HKR and DB Management

HKR: corporate.affairs@hkri.com

DB Management: dbsml@dbsml.com

Signature campaign

Here is one of the posts from below. We need to keep up the pressure on HKR!!


Anonymous said...

Having been on the VOC, it is indeed a waste of time. Sadly enough the owners of Beach and all other villages have 1 big problem, they are divided amongst themselves (comes in handy for HKR). HKR runs the show without consideration of owners or tenants wishes and will continue to do so till we stand up as a group. Financial loss is their only consideration as well as negative publicity. Focussing on these two issues might book results, whereas direct negotiation is a complete waste of time. A signature campaign, critizing the way DB is managed would be a good start if we can combine it with SCMP or similar. Anybody interested to further explore the options

Another good letter

delfi said...

To the DB Resort Management:

Even to the untrained eye, the current "renovation" projects at Beach Village and the DB Plaza have provided textbook examples in how not to do a job; ranging from poor planning, wasteful use of resources, total lack of construction co-ordination according to a work schedule, lengthy periods of stagnation and inactivity, shoddy workmanship, unmotivated and seemingly unskilled workforce, weak mangagement supervision (of both contractors and disgruntled domestic tenants) and all compounded by a total lack of any response from HKR.

My personal experience of the work at Beach Village has been:

- Scaffolding: Why is this still up 6 months after it was erected? It limits our use of the balconies, provides an unwanted security anxiety and is ugly. As a sidenote, I had to give the hapless site manager a bollocking in Cantonese last weekend for compensation for a broken cat litter box, used by a scaffolding worker as a step-up way back in January. It took 6 months and many irate phone calls.

-Construction waste at ground level: Jagged open tins of industrial paint, huge cut planes of glass, sharp construction rubble etc lie around abandoned and untended without censure by HKR security. Given the number of curious children in DB it is a small miracle that no child has yet suffered a serious injury. Imagine the lawsuit that would follow if such a tragic event should happen. Glass and construction waste will, however, remain in the grass long after the labourers have gone.

-Human waste at ground level: The "workers' shanties" built at ground level have transformed parts of BV into the worst type of favela; workers' clothing, the detritus of living (bottles, plastic bags etc) and worst of all, the smell of human piss.

-Outside wall "Hacking off" work: Please explain why this was necessary. The resultant dust, noise and private enjoyment intrusion are all well-documented. I had a huge hole put through the study wall by careless and no doubt unskilled labour. The pathetic patch-up job is literally a band-aid.

- Outside wall painting: No attempt made by the labourers to mitigate the effects of falling paint. Slapdash paint splash all over a/c units, windows, bbqs, balcony furniture, plants etc with no attempt to clean up. Shoddy. Unacceptable in any other place.

- Inside wall "hacking off": Why was this necessary? Seemingly random rectangular (sometimes triangular) shapes hacked out of a wall, like a grotesque kid's game played by clueless labourers. Resultant dust, noise, intrusion, smoking in hallways keep up the invasion to the home occupier's right to quiet and peaceful enjoyment.

- Inside hall staircase tiling: Without doubt, the most poorly conceived works project of the lot - completely and utterly unnecessary and which has caused the most distress to my young family (and continues to do so). The noise and especially the fine cement dust particulates which permeated everywhere (including my children's lungs) have made me angry beyond belief. I had the good fortune of being able to relocate my family to an absent friend's home in Coastline when they were on vacation for a couple of weeks during the worst. The staircase is now a dangerous, dirty and abandoned site - nothing has been done on it for about two weeks and yet we continue to trudge up filthy and unsafe steps. Why the delays? WHY?

- Inside walls cement works: Another example of poor sloppy workmanship. Cement on windows, slopped all over the floor and most worryingly, I notice that the fire extinguishers parked in the corners are now monuments in concrete. The working parts of these seem to be encased. I intend to complain to the Fire Department to see whether any building fire regulations have been breached.The site manager (who copped an earful from me last weekend) has no idea when the project will be finished. It is not his fault. He is just a cog in a brainless, uncoordinated machine.

- DB Plaza & crazy paving: Whoever came up with the idea of the Macau-style cobblestones should publicly own up to all the residents of DB. It is woefully ill-conceived, as anybody pushing a baby stroller would know. A sleeping baby would be jolted awake by the cobblestone ride, those already awake would have teeth loosened. The workmanship is there to see. Imagine yourself a works inspector of the Plaza - how many "snags" or major work faults would you, as a layperson, find? Plaza user friendly? Why also are there no park benches planned - they could be placed under the trees at the upper part of the Plaza.

- Compensation: An approach to the landlord brought only insincere noises. What does a landlord care if he is taking in $30K+ per month and he knows he can charge more when this "renovation" project is finally finished?

Compensation from HKR? The same people who don't even acknowledge that there is a problem would hardly pay up to those who have suffered as a result of that problem. The whole pointless, costly and stressful exercise is aimed at HKR charging more for units in the future, perpetuating the rent/purchase price cycle to their advantage.What a sick environment we make for our children, where corporate greed for future profits overrides our current right to enjoyment of our homes. They only see dollar signs where the Beach Village homes contain people, young and old trying to live their lives safely and peacefully.

I note that the Mandarin Hotel has closed down for renovations and yet we continue to pay Mandarin Hotel-like rates of HK$1,000+ per day to live in a construction site for more than 6 months.

This is clearly unacceptable.

I would urge all residents of Beach Village and DB generally to take the fight to HKR and to say "Enough is enough". Make our feelings known to those who may be foolish to think that because "professional" people are not complaining en masse, there is no problem.

Delfi
BEach Village resident

Here are some letters that need to be written to HKR

In nine years of working in the HK construction industry I have never seen a construction project more poorly organized or with less consideration for the people affected.

Some examples:
-On my building work which should have taken four to six weeks is still not completed after six months. Repeatedly the contractor would chip off plastering in one area, let it sit for a month before re-plastering, then let it sit for another month before painting, then start the process all over again in an adjacent area. Such a programme would be wholly unacceptable for most clients, particularly when the work is being carried out on occupied buildings.

-The floor tiles in my stairway were chipped off, the debris covered with plywood, and new tiles/sand/cement stacked outside. Everyone entering my building, including children, had to navigate through this hazardous mess for six weeks, instead of the three or four days the work should have taken to complete. Anywhere else in the world the contractor would have been terminated if not sued for turning a public entrance (and required means of escape) into an unprotected construction site and then leaving it unattended for days at a time. As of today the new tiles have still not been cleaned nor all of the debris removed.

-In addition to blatant disregard for the resident’s comfort and safety there is also a high degree of stupidity involved on the part of whoever organized this work. After five months of re-plastering and repainting our stairway portions of the new work were chipped out to install a new door & associated wiring, and have not yet been patched. Furthermore, while the new doorframe has been installed the new door has not. I expect that if the new door is ever installed another month of noise, dust, and laughably slow work will occur for removal of the old door.

This is nothing but sheer incompetence.
Tuesday, 06 June, 2006

What's next?

We set this blog up to see if anyone else was feeling like us (they are) and to pass information back and forth (we all have.) We think it has been useful, both as a cathartic release of angst and as a forum for information.

(We particularly want to thank those in the construction industry who gave us the very useful comments on the technical aspects of this "renovation.")

We also set the blog up to see if there was widespread interest in having a community meeting, and/or to see if we could generate some kind of consensus as to what an effective 'next move' would be.

In our opinion it seemed that there was not much of a desire to have a community meeting. If we are wrong about that it would be good if people could comment as such, and better still, spread the word of this blog to their neighbors, and ask them to comment as well so we can get a larger consensus of Beach Village residents. Sending a link with the address of this site by email is really easy.

Anyway, a close reading of all the comments seemed to indicate that most were moving toward the opinion that, as the work was at a late stage, it was now unstoppable and, furthermore, that HKR/DB Management would continue to avoid responsibility for it and nothing would change that. It seems that people are now talking about compensation, from either HKR or their respective landlords.

There also seemed to be little desire for having yet another confrontational meeting with DB Management and the VOC. It seemed that most of the commenters had already had several run-ins with management and sometimes even with the contractor.

Sorry in particularl to the commenter/reader "Georgethegweilo", but, and with all due respect, how many of these kinds of meetings do we need to have before we all realise they are futile? We know many owners who tried in meetings before the renovations had even started to exert influence, and they could not.

The VOC meetings in particular seem to be the wrong venue for a community meeting, as they are closed to non-owners, and even owners are not allowed to talk. Tactically that makes them the worst possible forum for broad-based participation as right away it means the vested interests of HKR/DB/VOC control the floor, literally. Also, they are in the DB offices.

Yes, one of our previous posts suggested that all should go to that meetings, (and actually we DID have a representative there,) but most of us in this "group" don't want to meet HKR, the "VOC" or DB Management in circumstances like that. We have always felt that it would be better to first have a community meeting, open to all and in a neutral space.

We (this posting group) want to now do only what is effective at this stage in the game, which we feel is to (1) apply economic pressure and (2) continue to publicize to prospective owners and renters what they can expect when they try to live here. We are, frankly, beyond listening to anymore crap from HKR or their proxies. We still think there is a story here of interest to a wider audience and we would like to try to tap into that.

Those are the steps we want to take now, and in the meantime this blog will remain focused on the main issue of the disastrous "renovation" itself; to both document it and show the extent of Beach Village resident's suffering.

As such, we ask that you please continue to add your experiences with this "renovation" to the comments section. We will continue to allow all comments, but we will delete repeats of previous comments and those that are off-topic or abusive.

Please add your comments and make a complaint to DB Management

Resort living in Discovery Bay



Here is one of the home-wreckers

These handheld pneumatic jackhammers are used to rip up concrete floors and walls. They are legal to use, even indoors, in HK. The noise they make is similar to the blasting of a heavy machine gun, and its impact percussions are conducted and amplified though the solid concrete walls of our flats. HKR/DB Management allows contractors to use these 6 days/week, from 9:00AM to 6:00PM.


updated Wed June 7th:
General consensus seems to be that tenants should seek compensation, or withhold rents, from landlords, and landlords/owners should withhold final payment for the job, and/or management fees to HKR/DB Management.

There is a Beach Village Owners committee meeting this Friday, June 9th at 7:30 PM in DB at the Management office (behind the Plaza apartments) ground floor, conference room #2 .

Everyone who has been negatively effected by this should come to this meeting.

We hope to see you there, and thanks to all who commented with their stories, advice and information.



Please add your comments to any of the posted articles below. We would like to build consensus for meeting and action, so please add (to this post) your thoughts on that as well, then check back to this site for updates.

Thanks,

Group1

And/or:

Complain directly to DB Management:

Ken Woodhouse
GM DB Operations
DB Office Centre, #2 Plaza Lane, DB
2238-3601

OR

Anthea Ho
Assistant Manager, Beach Village Estate
DB Office Centre, #2 Plaza Lane, DB
2238-3605

Welcome to the war zone

Another fine mess you have gotten us into HKR!















Here is one of the hallways in Beach Village after the internal "hacking off" work with the pneumatic jackhammer. There was NOTHING WRONG with the concrete or tile in this hallway, why then did they need to rip it out??

Sound is conducted perfectly through concrete when it is blasted out like this, and thus the noise this created was incredible and unbearable.

The hacking off was indiscriminate. We checked the marked areas before blasting, and there were less than 2 areas that might have had a hollowness under the old concrete, so why are all the walls being stripped?

TO DB Management and HKR: if it takes so much heavy work and to blast it out, perhaps it should have been left alone and the walls simply painted, while the tile could have been cleaned and/or polished. This internal work was the final indignity of a terrible experience. Why was it saved until the end, and why did so many buildings report that the majority of this terrible work was done on Saturdays and if done on weekdays, latter in the day when children and wives were home?

Since this was the worst and most disruptive of the work, shouldn't you have set up a FIRM timetable for it to be done? With ample notice to the residences effected?

Have you no sense of decency or consideration? Or is basic intelligence and lack of professionalism your collective problem?????

DB Management takes down our flyers and posters

Hey! Privacy please! Can't you see we're sleepin' in here!






Unique DB units for rent!!

Large open space with no bath, floor toilet and low ceilings. Just perfect for the II looking for a place to bunk over night between demolition and robbery jobs! See your rental agent now!

A real fixer-up special!!!












We noticed this week that DB Management instructed their staff to take down the small posters we pined to the bulletin boards in Beach Village. Why? Are we now not even allowed to criticize the way this "renovation" has been handled? HKR and DB management would now deny us the right to free speech and to express our concerns?

Interesting. I guess we hit a nerve with them, as we are advocating that compensation be paid to residents for the suffering we have all had to endure for so many months.

Complain direct to DB Management at:

Ken Woodhouse
GM DB Operations
DB Office Centre, #2 Plaza Lane, DB
2238-3601

OR

Anthea Ho
Assistant Manager, Beach Village Estate
DB Office Centre, #2 Plaza Lane, DB
2238-3605

Scorced earth policy for renovations in DB

HKR and DB Management intend to rip it up and pave it over, whatever the effect on occupants of Beach Village.

I never agreed to THIS in my lease!

I just signed a new lease last year, but I never agreed to having my balcony and hallway ripped up and losing the view from the balcony for 4 months. No body mentioned this renovation; the agents, the landlord or DB Management. I moved into this new place, the scaffolding went up, and here we are.

Getting back to the money: 4 months, that's 2/3rds of a year, and my rent is @ HK$30,000 per month or HK$360,000 per year.

What is the cost of what I have lost?

If we calculate that these renovations result in a 20% reduction of useage and enjoyment of my flat, then the basic cost to me is HK$24,000.

That's almost a month's rent. I'll ask my landlord for that much off next month's rent.

About us

We are long term residents of DB, with many of us having been here since the early 90's. Some of us are owners, some are tenants. None of us are "absent owners". That is, we all live in DB, specifically Beach Village.

We know HK and DB well, and have lived through many "interesting times" here in DB, HK and China.

When we make a comment about HKR or how DB is run, we will tell the truth as we have experienced it. We may get a date or two wrong, but we are close.

For instance, most of us have lived through these massive renovations before, and have direct experience with how they have effected our homes. The last great exterior renovation on Headland Village resulted in OVER 30 break-ins, most of which were done at night WHILE THE RESIDENTS SLEPT!

(Note: if you are new to Hong Kong, then you need to know about the social phenomena of cat burglary here in HK: Often illegal immigrant Mainlanders, or recent migrants, these guys are tough, desperate, and reckless, and they shimmy up the external drain pipes and ledges and regularly break into apartments here using nothing more than a screw driver. However, once inside, they arm themselves with your kitchen knives or hammers, and will often attack the residents if they wake up. Usually they tie you up and rob you, but worse has happened.

Many expats (including the former Canadian Consular General, who almost had his finger cut off) have experienced being threatened and assaulted in their homes in the middle of the night by HK cat burglars. These guys think nothing of climbing 20 stories or more, so the low-rises of Beach Village are a "walk in the park" for them.

Scaffolding like we have now is a open invitation to the opportunist burglar. And, as one of our posts explains, after the renovation job is over, it is often the former workers themselves who return to DB to break in and steal. This is what happened during and after Headland's external renovations, when there were also a lot of workers coming into DB for the Siena construction.

HKR is ripping us off

HKR (Hong Kong Resorts company) is a typical HK property developer which, though listed on the HK stock exchange, is controlled by a single family, in this case the Cha family, which is lead by its 91 year old patriarch, Dr. Cha.

The Chas are a typical property business family in HK, wielding political as well as economic power. Dr Cha is well-connected on the mainland as he is a CCPPC member.

HKR is the owner and operator of Discovery Bay. Through their various subsidiaries, such as the transport company and commercial leasing, they make money from the operations of the community, and of course from the sale of new flats in the new "phases" that are built regularly.

We are not sure about the longterm return on equity that HKR delivers to its minority shareholders, but based on the inconsideration shown to their minority shareholders and stakeholders in DB itself (that is, the small owners, tenants and resident owners,) I would bet they manipulate the company and trample on minority shareholder rights as well. This is common practice in these typical family-run listed companies in HK. Caveat Emptor; invest at your peril.

HKR has run DB as it has pleased for years. According to our experience they dominate the Owner's Committees to ensure that whatever they wish is implemented, and they feel confident that they can do so without significant repercussions.

Their attitude is that with so many "short-termed" expat residents, and with so many owners being non-resident investors, and with most local resident-owners residing in newer phases, that there is no one who can, or will, rock the boat by protesting too loudly or forming any opposition group to their building plans.

As long as they don't threaten the steady rental income from the new crop of expat families moving here every year, few of the current owners will complain too loudly for the sake of either their tenants or themselves.

When an person buys a flat in DB they have to sign their rights away. DB is allowed to make an extensive renovation every 7 years and these are funded mostly by the owners, with only a small amount coming from a residual fund.

Now that real estate values have recovered somewhat, HKR wants to rush through several new phases and extensive renovations in order to increase their profit margins on sales of flats.

This is good for HKR and speculators, but not as much for other owners, and even less for tenants. But since so many residents in the older phases are expat families that leave within 1-3 years, HKR is not concerned about the immediate impact of renovations, as this group has no power or voice within the HK community.

In the last 6 years we have had Siena building, external renovations on several phases, the renovation of the residents Club and of course, our personal favorite (not!) in demonstrating the greed and incompetence of the company: the Plaza renovation.

Everyone in DB knows the stupidity associated with the Plaza renovation: the jagged tiles, the noise, the massive disruption, the loss of our restaurants and lifestyle for almost a year. I think most people have figured out that this renovation was mainly to increase HKR's commercial leasing revenues, primarily from new restaurants, as the economy picks up. "C With an E" and Jaspa's restaurants proved to HKR that upscale western restaurants could work here. Our prediction is that with the re-opening of the plaza and the subsequent large numbers of new commercial units, there will soon be more new restaurants than the community can support, each paying high rents, and within 2-3 years many will close only to be replaced by low-quality, local "kitchen"-type places. This is what occurred in the 90's, when there was little western food available, and 'local' places were of low quality.

The economic value of the Plaza renovation to HKR is obvious, but it would be interesting to know the extent of what HKR gains from the Beach Village renovation.

Anyway, we are pretty sure that THEY are benefiting while we are paying the price, and we know THAT is a rip-off.

Effects of Beach Village renovation

Here are some things that have happened to us and our neighbors in Beach Village, D.B. since the beginning of this useless renovation:

Bamboo scaffolding:
This, and the accompanying green construction netting, went up across the entire phase at the about the same time. For months this ugly contraption has hindered access to balconies, blocked views, rendered doors and windows inoperable, and also provides easier access to HK’s notorious “cat-burglars” and peeping toms.

Construction workers:
The contractor’s workers that are swarming all over our apartments are very dirty and loud. They have been peeing under (and on) our buildings, and there have been several reports of them "peeping" in our wives and daughters bedroom windows and bathrooms. The whole area is littered with their cigarette buts and construction debris.

Unlike other construction sites in more-advanced cities, these workers were not provided with on-site, convenient portable toilets, and as such the workers have been urinating right under our buildings in the open cellar crawl-spaces underneath each Beach Village building.

Take a look for yourself: simply go into one of these areas under our buildings, (where we all store our kid’s bikes and sometimes baby strollers) and you will immediately notice the strong smell of urine. We have also noticed the smell of urine on sheltered ledges and balconies around the top floors of our units. The workers are likely too tired to bother climbing down the scaffolding and simply pee on the building when they are working near the top.

You might have noticed that the first thing that was installed were boards over the open crawl-spaces at the bottom of our buildings, these have become little ‘clubhouses’ for the workers in which they take naps, urinate and eat, and at night dry out and store their clothes and equipment. As small enclosures like these afford the opportunity for sexual assaults and rapes, we think that women and girls are at risk as a result of these areas.

Security:
There have been reports of peeping into windows and some break-ins. You should be aware that in 2000-2001 when there were external renovations on Headland buildings, there was a series of break-ins, as many as 35, that were perpetrated by workmen, returning to the site at night, and using their intimate knowledge of the buildings to break in and commit robbery. DB management tried to cover up the extent of the crimes then (the police ultimately insisted on posting notices) and we suspect that this is the case now. Previous break-ins have often been AFTER the renovation work has been completed, so it is possible, that for the Beach Village residents, the worse has yet to come.

Safety:
How would you like to come home and find a dead or injured man in your courtyard? Tough to explain to the kids that in HK there is little regard for poorly paid construction workers safety, and thus the blood on your floor. This has happened at least once that we are aware of, but likely there have been more instances of worker injury, breakage and accidents. Again, DB management has tired to ‘hush’ it up and won’t release figures or information on this. we know there have been instances of personal injury and pet injury to residents as well, not to mention damage to property. Our balconies are littered with rubbish and dirt, and there are smears of new plaster across balcony floors, rails, windows and walls. The insides of our units are very dusty from the internal blasting, which kicks up large amounts of dust in the hallways, which then bleeds into our homes.

Noise:
In HK it is acceptable to make as much noise as possible when constructing or renovating. This means that hand-held pneumatic jackhammers are being used to “hack off’ the concrete and tiles on the walls and floors. Since the buildings are made of formed concrete, the vibrations and devastatingly loud noise generated by these machines reverberates throughout the entire building. As you all know it is almost impossible to live and function in the apartment when this is occurring, and it is very stressful for our families, helpers and pets.

Several residents have also reported that the loudest and most disruptive work is being done on the weekends, on Saturday, with often little or none being done on weekdays during school and office hours, when most residents would be out. Why this is so is completely baffling. In a luxurious, resort styled community like DB, with mostly families and high-earning professionals, why would HKR/DB Management allow this to occur?

The answer is, that as residents WE HAVE NO RIGHTS, and even owners have little influence. As such the developer/management allows the contractor to carryout the work in the most cost-effective way for the sake of the contractor’s profits.

NOTE THAT HKR/MANAGEMENT HAS NOW GIVE THE CONTRACTOR PERMISSION TO WORK ON SUNDAYS AND HOLIDAYS BECAUSE THEY ARE BEHIND SCHEDULE, AND THE CONTRACTOR IS FINED HK$15,000/DAY OVER SCHEDULE.

Perhaps this money should be coming directly to the residents as compensation for our pain and suffering.

Destruction of community lawns, shrubs and garden areas :
You will have noticed the devastation to the gardens and lawns around Beach Village. I pay a lot of rent and undertake a long commute everyday so that my family and I can live in a peaceful, green environment, but this construction has ruined that.

General Inconveniences:
With workers scurrying around the unit many of us have taken to keeping our blinds and drapes closed. We have in effect been living in the dark for many months now.

Those of us with balconies have not been able to use them for all the debirs and dust left behind.

There has been an increase of bird droppings and insect infestation related to the scaffolding and construction debris. Rats have been spotted in the piles of debris outside the buildings.

The real reason for the Beach Village renovation

WHAT SHOULD WE HACK OFF TODAY BOSS?

OH HELL, LET'S JUST HACK IT ALL OFF!

Here is the “inside information” on DB's Beach Village "renovation" :

Under the control of the Cha family, HK Resorts, the developer that owns DB, have in recent years been heavily promoting sales of new phases Siena and now Chianti. You have probably noticed the crowds of visitors, prospective buyers, who have been enticed to visit DB on the weekends. As one of DB’s first phases of flats, Beach Village was becoming noticeably worn and since it boarders the beach and the plaza, it is the first area that visitors experience upon arriving.

HKR had became concerned that the run-down appearance of Beach Village was negatively affecting their sales of their new phases, Siena and Chianti, and so forced this “renovation” on the owners committee, which they control through their proxies.

A much more extensive renovation than just a simple “coat of paint” was pushed through, despite the already significant disruption of the Plaza renovation and the fact that there has already been a tremendous amount of internal renovations in Beach Village as a result of its age and poor quality construction.

It is not clear as to why it was deemed necessary for large portions of the walls to be hacked off, or why the entire internal hallways needed to be stripped of concrete with even the tiles being taken up. There was no visible wearing of the concrete and specious reasons were given in the Village Owners Committee meetings.

There is wide-spread suspicion that HKR is in some way connected to the contractor, and that though the majority of this renovation is unnecessary, as it is funded by the owners, and the tenants and residents have no say, it is worth doing for the developer as it helps to maintain the value of the new phases being built and sold; also it creates revenues to the contractor(s) and suppliers who are likely owned, controlled or owed something for somekind of recipricol deal with HKR or the Cha family.