Mandatory Window Inspection · Licensed Window Inspection Company

The Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme (MWIS) is operated by the Buildings Department under the Buildings Ordinance. Its purpose is to keep windows in safe condition and reduce accidents in which windows or their components fall.

The scheme applies to private buildings aged 10 years or above, excluding domestic buildings not exceeding three storeys. It covers all windows and glass louvre windows, including glass walls in private premises and in the common parts of a building. Internal partition glass and ground-floor shopfront windows are excluded.

Note that not every qualifying building must arrange an inspection straight away. Only after the Buildings Department serves a statutory notice must the owner appoint a Qualified Person to complete the prescribed inspection and any prescribed repair within the period stated in the notice. If no notice has been served, nothing needs to be arranged.

The Buildings Department selects target buildings in batches, taking into account building condition, records of falling-window incidents and building clusters. It then serves a statutory notice on the owner of an individual flat, or on the owners and the owners' corporation for the common parts of a building.

Receiving a notice does not mean your windows are already defective — it means the building has been selected for this round of mandatory inspection. Owners served with a notice must comply; windows that merely look fine is not a reason to leave it.

Step 1: Check the address, the notice number and the completion deadline on the notice. Windows in individual flats generally must be completed within 6 months of the notice date; windows in the common parts of a building within 9 months. The period stated in your notice always governs.

Step 2: Appoint a Qualified Person. The prescribed inspection must be carried out personally by a Qualified Person on the Buildings Department register — it cannot be delegated to someone else.

Step 3: The Qualified Person inspects each window component, including glazing, frames, sashes, hinges, screws and rivets.

Step 4: Where defective components affecting safety are found, appoint a registered contractor to carry out the prescribed repair under the supervision of the Qualified Person.

Step 5: Once the repair is complete, the Qualified Person confirms that the works have been properly carried out.

Step 6: The Qualified Person submits the inspection report and supporting documents to the Buildings Department using the prescribed form. For flats in Home Ownership Scheme courts, Tenants Purchase Scheme estates or public housing estates, the forms and submissions go instead to the Independent Checking Unit (ICU) under the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Housing, not directly to the Buildings Department.

Step 7: Confirm that the statutory notice has been complied with. The process is then complete.

No. Whether repair or replacement is required is for the Qualified Person to judge from the actual condition of the windows; hinge replacement is not part of every inspection.

Under the Buildings Department's criteria, any defective window component that affects the safety of the window must be repaired or replaced — and that is not limited to hinges. Common cases include: broken or cracked glass; frames or sashes that are hard to open and close, warped or unstable; hinges that are deformed, missing or severely oxidised; and rivets and screws that have loosened, gone missing, or show rust marks or white powder deposits.

If a company declares that every hinge in the flat needs replacing before inspecting, ask to see the itemised inspection findings first, and consider comparing another company or two.

Once hinges oxidise or loosen, they carry less load and the sash gradually drops; in serious cases the whole sash can come away from the frame.

If the screws and rivets holding the hinges loosen, go missing or show rust marks, the window's fixing points are no longer reliable — often without anything visible from the outside.

An unstable sash or a warped frame stops the window closing tightly, so it rattles and knocks in strong wind, accelerating the failure of other components.

Once glass is broken or cracked, fragments can fall when the window is struck or caught by wind.

Hong Kong's buildings are densely packed, and a component falling from a high-level window endangers both residents and passers-by — with potential civil and criminal liability for the owner. Dealing with it before typhoon season is the safer course.

Failing without reasonable excuse to comply with the statutory notice within the period allows the Buildings Department to issue a fixed penalty notice, with a fixed penalty of HK$1,500.

Repeated non-compliance leading to conviction carries a maximum fine of HK$25,000 and 3 months' imprisonment, plus a further fine of HK$2,000 for each day the offence is proved to the court's satisfaction to have continued.

The Buildings Department may also appoint its own consultants and contractors to carry out the necessary inspection and repair works, then recover the inspection and repair costs and supervision fees from the owner or the owners' corporation, together with a surcharge of up to 20% of those costs.

In short, delay does not make the problem go away, and the final bill is usually higher than arranging it on time.

Amgen Aluminium Windows is a Buildings Department registered minor works contractor, licence number MWC 316/2021, verifiable on the register at any time.

We help owners understand what the statutory notice requires and by when, arrange a Qualified Person to carry out the prescribed inspection, follow through on any repairs the inspection calls for, and handle and submit the associated forms and supporting documents.

Inspection, repair and declaration are handled together, so owners do not have to coordinate several companies — and there is no finger-pointing between whoever wrote the report and whoever did the work.