Termination of Public Housing Tenancies in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is well known for its high land price and cost of living and public housing, hence playing an important role in providing affordable accommodation for citizens. In recent years, a number of decisions of the Hong Kong Housing Authority ('HKHA') on terminating public housing tenancies have been challenged by the tenants in courts through judicial review. This article first explores why a seemingly landlord-tenant decision, which should be regulated under private law, has become the subject of judicial review. It is then submitted that the Hong Kong courts, in reviewing the termination decisions, have adopted a more policy-oriented approach that has unfortunately resulted in applying inconsistent standards of review for different reasons of termination. This article argues that the inconsistent approaches are undesirable as it not only creates a state of confusion, but also ignores the terms of the contract entered between the HKHA and its tenants and imposes an unreasonably high burden of proof on the HKHA. The article finally concludes with a two-step approach and proposes that such a uniform approach should be applied for all public housing tenancy termination decisions.