EAA Publications
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| The Freshman |
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Preface
A Lesson Well-learned Trains an Alert Mind |
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The Chinese are a people with
a strong attachment to land. To acquire one's own property is
the ideal of most people. In Hong Kong, a densely populated
city with a scarcity of land, the price of land is especially
high. It is far from easy to have a place of one's own. Quite
a number of people spend their lives working hard just to purchase
their own property. To call the acquisition of property is the
decision of a lifetime is no exaggeration.
As flats in Hong Kong are expensive and the majority of purchasers,
being inexperienced in property transactions, may suffer losses
if they do not exercise care. Besides, most sales and purchases
of flats in Hong Kong are carried out through estate agents.
The implementation of the Estate Agents Ordinance has propelled
the trade towards professionalism and consumers have naturally
raised their expectations of them, whether on the level of specialized
knowledge or of professional ethics. In other words, consumers
have become more dependent on agents in the course of property
transactions. With the introduction of the Ordinance, the mode
of operation of the estate agency business has changed substantially
and practitioners are going through a period of adapting and
learning in order to perform their functions more effectively.
Since the implementation of the Estate Agents Ordinance, the
Estate Agents Authority has spared no efforts in carrying out
promotion and education. In addition to inculcating upon practitioners
the importance of the correct business attitude and a good practical
knowledge, the Authority also tries to convey to the public
a proper consumer's sense so that all parties may recognize
their rights and duties. The Authority has published articles
and Q & A columns in major newspapers to explain the new
regulations. Through case analysis, it has sought to introduce
to the public, by real life examples, problems which may be
encountered by consumers and practitioners alike. As their titles
suggested, the purpose of these articles was to alert both agents
and clients to possible pitfalls in property transactions.
This collection comprises new cases and published cases rewritten
for the present volume. The collection is titled The Freshman,
with the intent that in the new mode of property transactions,
the property owner, the purchaser, the tenant and even the estate
agent are all freshman and therefore should regard the problems
detailed in the cases as lessons to be learnt and kept constantly
in mind.
I would also like to thank Mr Tang Man Leung here for adorning
the pages of this volume with his illustrations.
| September 2000 |
Grace M Y Chow
Chief Executive Officer
Estate Agents Authority |
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