+852 2573
Tenancy Law
Our Services
Our lawyers have extensive experience in providing legal services to landlords and tenants of residential and commercial property in Hong Kong. We advise on:
- Commercial office and shop tenancies
- Residential tenancies
- Change of tenant
- Surrender agreements
- Repossession
- Rent recovery
- Tenancy litigation
Our Experience
Non-Contentious Tenancy Matters
We take a practical and sensible approach when dealing with all aspects of the landlord and tenant relationship and recognise at the outset the need to meet the commercial needs of our client. This is particularly important in view of the recent changes to the Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) Ordinance which removes aspects of security of occupation in both residential and commercial tenancies.
We produce realistic, readable legal documentation to safeguard our clients' expectations. We recognise the need for good relations between landlord and tenant which assists the landlord to attract quality tenants for the benefit of both parties.
Our experience includes:
- Acting for landlords of stand-alone buildings including acting for a landlord of an office building in Soho and drafting their tenancy applications, drafting their standard office tenancy, considering their building rules and regulations, and co-ordinating the surrender by defaulting tenants with the start of a new tenancy, thereby minimising losses to the landlord.
- Negotiating tenancies on behalf of tenants in respect of luxury residential premises.
- Acting for a major telecommunications affiliate in its negotiation of one of the first tenancies of the Cyberport.
- Acting for tenants of various restaurants and bars in Soho and Wanchai.
- Acting for a major airline in negotiating an exhibition licensing agreement with the landlord of a prominent building in Central.
Contentious Tenancy Matters
Our approach to landlord and tenant disputes is to manage the process. When acting for the landlord, the objective is to maximise recovery of rental arrears and minimise costs and losses. With tenants the objective is to maintain and secure the continuance of the tenancy and thus the continuance of the business in times of cash-flow problems.
We advise landlords and tenants in contentious matters, and our experience includes:
- Advising a landlord to implement a scheduled system of invoicing and enforcement procedures upon rental default including issuing distraint proceedings.
- Acting for landlords of office and retail premises to sue for rental arrears and forfeit tenancy.
- Acting for tenants to defend claims for rental payment and assert counterclaims on the basis of deductions.
- Acting for a tenant to assert a nuisance case against a landlord who engaged in systematic renovations throughout the building at various times for an extensive period.
- Acting for a potential tenant to claim for a forfeited deposit for failing to agree and execute a formal tenancy agreement.
TDW Specialist Tenancy Law Team
Richard Tanner - Richard was educated in England and qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1978. He specialises in Corporate and Commercial law. He advises on the establishment and running of companies in Hong Kong and China; shareholders agreements; contractual needs, mergers and acquisitions; distribution arrangements, agency contracts and franchising. Richard acts for local and overseas clients in a variety of sectors including telecommunications, fashion, hospitality, investment, electronics and distribution in China and supervises the firm's tenancy advice provided to clients.
Mark Side - Mark has extensive commercial litigation experience in both the UK and in Hong Kong. Mark acts for shareholders, financial companies, public companies and accountants. He has worked on restrictive covenant cases involving departing partners of law firms. A part of Mark's work is for the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and involves the prosecution of professional negligence cases within the profession and has conducted one of the largest cases in Hong Kong concerning a barrister's professional duty, which generated litigation in Hong Kong, England and various courts in the United States of America.
Eddie Look - Eddie qualified in British Columbia, Canada in 1998 and in Hong Kong in 2001. He has considerable experience in tenancy matters. He has acted for landlords of entire buildings and implemented their rental application and tenancy agreement procedures. He has substantial experience advising landlords including negotiating with defaulting tenants and effectively minimising any losses for the landlord. Eddie has also acted for tenants of luxury premises and continues to do so. His experience in giving sensible advice to both landlords and tenants of residential, office and shop premises is the hallmark of his practice in this area.
