The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau is not currently advancing a cap on the number of proxy votes one person may hold at building-management meetings. The bureau proposed amendments to the Building Management Ordinance in February 2026 and opened a month-long consultation in August. Secretary Alice Mak said more than half of about 500 consultation responses had reservations about a cap.
The concern is how to apply a limit when too many proxies arrive. If one person could hold 20 votes but an owners’ corporation received 21, it could be difficult to decide which was over the limit. Mak said people had also raised the question of whether priority should depend on when a proxy was submitted or when it was signed.
Electronic authorisation is one option officials are studying, not an adopted system. Mak said a confirmation button could create a timestamp, helping distinguish the 20th proxy from the 21st. The consultation also considered limiting proxies to another owner in the same estate or a family member; Mak said that could affect corporate owners and people who want to appoint a professional representative.
Separate proposals submitted to the Legislative Council aim to make proxy authorisations easier to check. The owner granting authority and the proxy would both have to sign and leave contact details, and the proxy would declare that the owner had issued the authorisation. Under the proposal, forgery, failing to sign or providing false information would carry criminal liability.
The Bureau’s proposed amendments would leave the quorum for general owners’ meetings at 10%, after concerns that raising it could make meetings about ordinary estate business harder to hold. For major repairs, the required in-person attendance would rise with the project cost. Every meeting involving major repairs would also need a briefing beforehand; without one, owners could not vote on the relevant works.