I trust that most of you have read my message in the February issue of ST, which stated that the application for registration as a Registered Inspector (RI) under the MBIS had already started. Any building surveyor who possesses an AP qualification is eligible to register without having to attend an interview (subject to proof of his maintenance and repair experience). A building surveyor who does not possess an AP qualification would require one year of practical experience in building construction, repair, and maintenance in Hong Kong before s/he can apply and be interviewed.

 

According to the statistics in the Buildings Department’s (BD) website, there are only 36 surveyors registered as RI out of 900 building surveying corporate members of the HKIS at the end of May 2012. With the implementation of the RI registration system, the public would gradually regard an RI registration as the benchmark of a surveyor’s professional qualifications to undertake building inspection, repair, and maintenance works. We at the HKIS have always trained to be experts in building inspection, maintenance, and repair. Moreover, our predecessors and the BSD have paid much effort to promote our professional image in our building inspection and maintenance activities. However, it would be difficult to demonstrate that building surveyors are experts in this field if most of us do not even possess the RI qualification.

 

I would, therefore, appeal to our BS members to apply for the RI qualification even if you are working in the public sector or government departments. Someday, you may be asked to demonstrate your ability to manage and supervise a building maintenance or repair project before you attain your RI!

 

Members should note a recent fatal accident in Tsuen Wan that was possibly related to the flower box design in residential buildings. In response to the accident, the BD reviewed the current design of the flower box attached to residential flats  on upper floors and issued additional guidelines on this design with a view to avoiding the risks induced by its daily use and maintenance by individual households.

 

The BD has set certain dimensional requirements for the flower box design, as shown in the sketch below, to ensure safe and reasonable access to the flower box from the flat without the need to climb over the windows to carry out daily maintenance and cleaning works.

 

I represented the HKIS at the Safety Summit of the Construction Safety Week on 21 May 2012. This event is jointly organized by the Development Bureau, the Construction Industry Council, and the Hong Kong Construction Association, while the HKIS was one of the supporting organizations promoting “Zero Accidents” on every construction site. On behalf of the HKIS, I signed a Joint Declaration to signify the collaboration of the industry’s stakeholders to pursue the common goal of a safe and healthy environment on construction sites.

 

At the summit, I delivered a short presentation on construction safety and health. I also took the opportunity to bring forth the need to pay more attention to building design to achieve better construction safety and health by avoiding unnecessary design elements that would induce high operational risk during construction. In addition, I highlighted the importance of building design in minimizing risky maintenance and repair operations and promoting more user-friendly and maintenance-free designs. More importantly, given the increasing volume of maintenance and repair works for existing buildings, I demanded that the industry pay urgent attention to the means and measures that promote safety and health in building repair and renovation projects.