Overlooking licensing requirements may lead to penalty

The Authority conducted regular visits to estate agency establishments to ensure due compliance of the licensing and practice requirements. In one of such visits to a company's registered office at Premises A in Chai Wan, it was revealed that the place was a vacant factory unit.

Later, officers of the Authority visited this company at Premises B on Bonham Road. Officers were received by a licensed employee who was only able to produce a copy of the Statement of Particulars of Business ("SPOB") issued for Premises A. According to the employee, the shop had been opened for 6 months and it was a branch of the main office which was located on Seymour Road.

On the same day, officers visited the company's main office at Premises C on Seymour Road and spoke to the sole proprietor of the company. He produced the SPOB for Premises A and admitted that his business which used to be at Premises A had been relocated to Premises C for two years and he did not amend the address in the SPOB. He also admitted that he had opened a branch at Premises B for six months but did not apply for an SPOB for that branch.

On the next day, the proprietor applied for amendment of the SPOB address (from Premises A to Premises C) and also applied for a new SPOB for the branch at Premises B. He later wrote to the Authority saying that he deeply regretted having committed the breaches of the licensing regulations out of oversight and heavy workload. The Disciplinary Committee considered the case and found that the proprietor had indeed operated both Premises B and C in breach of the licensing regulations in respect of SPOB and decided to impose a fine of $3,000 for each of the breaches and also to send him a reprimand.