The E-package consists of two documents: the first is the template residential tenancy agreement; the second is a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to stamp and register a tenancy agreement. While developing the E-package, between September 2017 and June 2018, Ms Chan and her students decided it was not sufficient to have it in English only as some members of the public may be more comfortable using Chinese. Ms Chan then invited Mr Edmund Cham, Adjunct Associate Professor of the Law Faculty, who teaches ‘Use of Chinese in Law’ to help. Mr Cham and the students in his course helped prepare the Chinese versions (both traditional and simplified Chinese). A team of teachers and students from the Faculty of Law has developed the ‘E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement’, enabling landlords and tenants to draw up their own rental agreement without having to engage a lawyer or an estate agent. The E-package was the brainchild of Ms Dora Chan, Principal Lecturer of the Department of Law. She supervised the students as they created and developed the idea, supported by an HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund granted by the University Grants Committee. “Previously, I was a property law practitioner, and saw a gap in the market for this,” she said. “On the one hand, most of our undergraduates study property law – and in particular tenancy law – in their second year. So they know the law but don’t have any opportunity to put their knowledge into practice. many forms from different government departments. The guidelines in the E-package include hyperlinks from various government websites leading to all the necessary statutory forms so people can access them easily via one place. This also means if any laws are updated, the hyperlinks should automatically go to the new government forms in future.“ In its first three months of existence (from mid-June to August 31, 2018), the E-package has received an impressive page view count of 51,256 and a download count of 24,170. It also garnered a lot of media coverage on television, radio and in the press and on social media. Asked if this was taking work away from property lawyers, Ms Chan said: “The E-package has satisfied a demand that was going unfilled by lawyers in the residential tenancy market for several reasons. One of the foremost is that the fees involved are relatively petty and therefore often are not commercially attractive to lawyers. At the same time, neither landlords nor tenants want to spend the time and fees to engage a lawyer. So I felt if we filled this demand we would not be treading on anyone’s toes. “There is a gap in the market for legal support on residential t enancy agreements and the E-package has provided a valuable opportunity for students at HKU to apply their legal knowledge and to serve the public by filling that gap.” For details, please visit www.clic.org.hk/en “Also in Hong Kong you need to have the agreement registered and pay stamp duty, but most of the existing templates don’t tell you how to do that – some don’t even mention that you need to do so. Failure to pay stamp duty or register would result in the tenancy agreement not being enforceable in court.” Available free via Community Legal Information Centre Ms Chan’s plan was to guide her students in developing the E-package and then to make it available for free to the public under the umbrella of the Law Faculty’s CLIC [Community Legal Information Centre], which is a website providing free bilingual legal information to all. CLIC covers the 29 topics the Law Faculty feels would have the most direct bearing on people’s lives. The main CLIC site receives an average of 4,400 visitors each day. “With the template, the public can fill in the essential information like names, rent and property details and they will have a tenancy agreement,” said Ms Chan. “We asked ourselves what are the most important concerns of both parties? For the landlord, the biggest worry is that a tenant may default on the rent. For the tenant, it is what is my side of the deal? What am I entitled to for my rent and how am I protected? We have simple and clear provisions in the template covering these concerns. “The guidelines take the public through what else they have to do after signing the agreement – paying stamp duty, registration etc. Before the E-package, landlord and tenant would have to look for procedures and gather “On the other, landlords and tenants want to draw up their own tenancy agreements but don’t know how. My idea was to bring the two together for a mutually advantageous cooperation.” The concept behind knowledge exchange is for the University and the community to cooperate, collaborate and help each other, so this felt like a good fit.” At the moment, if people want to prepare their own tenancy agreement, they can buy a printed form from a stationary shop or download a sample from the internet, but these may contain errors or be out of date. “There are question marks over who prepared those templates, and if they had proper legal qualifications,” said Ms Chan. “I have seen people get into trouble because the law has changed since the template was written, or because the form doesn’t cater for their particular circumstances. The development of a DIY residential tenancy electronic package lets undergraduates put their knowledge of property law into practice and helps landlords and tenants save money. Do-It-Yourself help on the rental home front There is a gap in the market for legal support on residential tenancy agreements and the E-package has provided a valuable opportunity for students at HKU to apply their legal knowledge and to serve the public by filling that gap. Ms Dora Chan The ‘E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement’ is now available to the public free of charge from the Community Legal Information Centre’s website. Ms Dora Chan (second from right) and students from the Faculty of Law prepared an ‘E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement’ to provide the public with free access to a residential tenancy agreement template. Knowledge Exchange 39 | 40 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | November 2018
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