Notice to Registered Building Professionals and Registered Contractors Work Arrangement of New Buildings Divisions of Buildings Department between August 3 to 9
In view of the extension of the special work arrangement for government employees until August 9 to reduce social contacts in order to stop COVID-19 from further spreading in the community, the Buildings Department (BD) will continue to provide emergency services and essential public services during this period.
A Drop-in Counter comprising a deposit box and designated tables (for placing bulky items) will continue to be placed in the office of BD's New Buildings Divisions (NBDs) located at 7/F, 14 Taikoo Wan Road, Hong Kong to operate from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm on Tuesday and Friday for receiving statutory submissions and related documents and forms for new building works. The receipt and dispatch counter and all AP/RSE Rooms in the NBDs Office will continue to be closed temporarily. Applicants are required to provide their fax number in each covering letter of their submissions and a copy of the covering letter for issuance of notification of receipt of the submissions via fax at a later stage. In addition, the handling time of these submissions would inevitably be longer than usual, particularly those to be processed under the centralised processing system.
For plans and related documents which have been processed, applicants would be individually contacted to collect the relevant plans and documents from the above NBDs office on Tuesday and Friday.
Regarding submissions received before, BD will concentrate on processing applications for approval of plans, consent applications and occupation permit applications approaching due dates as well as the related site inspections. For statutory submissions received on or after 3 August 2020, priority will be accorded to more critical submissions1.
To facilitate processing of submissions under the current special work arrangement, each submission should be accompanied with a DVD-ROM disc containing the soft copy of all the documents (plans, calculations, reports, etc.) and a set of A3-size hard copy of the submitted plans. If available, a hyperlink for access to the soft copy of the subject submitted plans and supporting documents would be furnished with the case officer via his/her office email address2 or NBDs' dedicated email address at
vhs@bd.gov.hk. The soft copy of the submitted Form BA8, Form BA13, Form BA14 and Form BA14A may be forwarded to the email address of the case senior officers and/or case officers.
The case officers may contact AP/RSE/RGE to clarify queries on the plan submissions via telephone or email. If the plans are considered as approvable under the Buildings Ordinance (BO) but subject to minor amendments, the plans would be approved and the issues to be rectified / clarified would be listed out in the approval letter. AP/RSE/RGE are required to address these issues in future amendment submission for approval before applying for consent to the commencement of the works. In this connection, AP/RSE/RGE are reminded of their responsibility to ensure that all these issues be fully complied with the relevant regulations and codes of practice before commencement of the works as well as rectifying any contravention of the BO and its subsidiary regulations as and when they are discovered and in any event, before certification of completion of works. As a streamlined arrangement, the corresponding amendment plans and application for consent to the commencement of the building works concerned can be submitted at the same time for BD’s concurrent processing.
Please contact us by email at
vhs@bd.gov.hk for enquiries on urgent matters regarding statutory submissions of new development projects. In addition, contact with BD officer can also be made via internet access to his/her office email address2.
BD will continue to closely liaise with the relevant professional institutions and stakeholder organisations when reviewing the above arrangement.
Buildings Department
31 July 2020
1. They refer to (i) first submission of general building plans, foundation plans, excavation and lateral support plans and pile cap plans; (ii) amendment plans required for re-application of occupation permits or related to site works being in progress; (iii) applications and re-applications of occupation permit; (iv) applications for consent for commencement of works that are critical milestone to enable works to continue; and (v) certification of building works not resulting in a new building (e.g. alteration and addition works, foundation works, etc.). Apart from the above, priority may be accorded on a case by case basis should the circumstances so warrant. For such cases, the AP/RSE/RGE should provide justification in the covering letters for BD’s consideration.
2. Email address is available at
https://tel.directory.gov.hk/index_BD_ENG.htm
