Macau Business. 21 October 2022. By Aries Un.
Arbitration will soon become a legal means for those looking to settle disputes over leaks in residential buildings, said the Executive Council Spokesperson Cheong Weng Chon.
According to him, authorities have drafted a bill that will address arguments of that sort. If passed by the Legislative Assembly, it will allow a resident affected by a leak to take his or her case to an arbitration court, whose verdicts are legally comparable to the ones made by the Court of First Instance.
The official said that it would just take 30 working days to make a verdict.
Police intervention will also be possible if the resident of the flat from which a leak originates refuses to cooperate.
According to official figures, the Legal Affairs Bureau has handled about 24,000 disputes since records began, with 700 still being addressed. Upwards of 80 per cent of the cases were resolved through negotiations under the supervision of the Bureau.
However, government officials stressed that the new legal approach would only serve as a “last resort”. “Neighbours should sort out their disagreements by communicating with one another,” said Cheong. “Arbitration is the last step to take. We don’t want to see legal action taken against each other.”
Under existing rules, the Civil Engineering Laboratory of Macau is the only organisation tasked with identifying the origin of leakage, and it could take as long as nine months for an investigation to conclude. However, over 2,000 registered civil engineers will qualify to carry out probes for affected residents after the bill is passed by lawmakers.
