In view of the latest situation, the Government announced on 13 February that the special work arrangement for government departments will be extended until 23 February in order to reduce social contacts and the risk of the spread of novel coronavirus in the community. The Government will review the situation before then. As such, the Buildings Department (BD) will continue to provide emergency services and other essential public services, as well as basic and limited-scale public services [https://www.bd.gov.hk/en/whats-new/press-releases/2020/0215-buildings-department-extends-special-work-arrangements-to-february-23.html].
You may wish to note that a Drop-in Counter comprising a deposit box and designated tables (for placing bulky items) would be set up in the office of BD's New Buildings Divisions (NBDs) located at 7/F, 14 Taikoo Wan Road, Hong Kong from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm on Tuesday (18 February) and Thursday (20 February) for receiving statutory submissions for new building works while the receipt and dispatch counter and all AP/RSE Rooms in the NBDs Office will continue to be closed temporarily. In this connection, the applicants are requested to provide their contact email address in each covering letter of their submissions for receiving BD's formal notification of receipt of the submissions which would be issued 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 submissions processed, applicants would be individually contacted to collect the relevant plans and documents from the above NBDs office on Monday (17 February), Wednesday (19 February) or Friday (21 February).
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 18 February, priority will be accorded to more critical submissions1.
To facilitate processing of submissions under the special work arrangement of NBDs, each submission made during the above extended period 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 email2 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.
Please contact us by email at vhs@bd.gov.hk for enquiries on urgent matters regarding statutory submissions of new development projects.
BD will review the above arrangement on a weekly basis.
Buildings Department
16 February 2020
1: They refer to first submission of general building plans, amendment plans required for re-application of occupation permits or related to site works being in progress, applications and re-applications of occupation permit, applications for consent for commencement of works that are critical milestone to enable works to continue, and certification of completion of building works not resulting in a new building (e.g. alteration and addition works, foundation works, etc.)
2: Email address is available at https://tel.directory.gov.hk/index_BD_ENG.html)