In January 2022, the Kowloon Regional Joint Office (JO) received a water seepage complaint from Ho Man Tin. The water seepage case was located in the bedroom of a first-floor flat in a single-block private residential estate (“Building A”) and involved another single-block private residential estate (“Building B”) next to it. The complainant said that water gushed out from the wall of his/her bedroom and pools of water could occasionally be found on the floor. Therefore, the complainant was deeply worried about the water seepage at that time and asked the JO for follow-up action. Upon investigation, the JO staff suspected that the water source came from the external wall and traced it to a second-floor flat in Building B. Therefore, they contacted the person-in-charge of the management company of Building B to arrange for a joint inspection at the complainant’s flat. After the joint inspection by the three sides, defects were found in the exposed water supply pipes outside the external wall on the second floor of Building B that had caused the water seepage. Subsequently, after the owner of the second-floor flat in Building B had completed the relevant repairs, water seepage in the complainant’s flat had also stopped.
While handling the case, the JO staff patiently explained to the complainant the procedures for dealing with water seepage. By analysing various factors and examining various possibilities regarding the source of water seepage, the water seepage problem was completely resolved in the end. The complainant later wrote to us to thank the JO staff for their proactive attitude in helping resolve the water seepage problem in his/her flat. The JO staff truly appreciated the complainant’s compliments, and opined that in the course of investigation, public officers should listen carefully to what the complainant said, think from different perspectives and follow up on the cases in a flexible manner so as to expedite the processing of water seepage cases.