The Hong Kong Bar Association has suggested capping the number of proxies a person can hold at homeowners’ meetings, without restricting who may act as a proxy, stressing that improving transparency and introducing an electronic voting system could help to deter abuse in large-scale maintenance procurement.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post, association chairman Jose-Antonio Maurellet expressed reservations about a government proposal to restrict an owner’s representative to a relative or another owner in the same estate to minimise external interference in building management affairs.
“Proxy right is a right which is derived from private ownership. So, we think it might be a little bit too onerous to say you can only proxy to these two classes of people,” he said.
“We tend to think a better approach, perhaps, is to increase the level of transparency.”