Persons Suitable to Hold Licences
The PMSO stipulates that a licence will only be issued if:
1. the PMSA is satisfied that the applicant:
- meets all the prescribed criteria for holding the licence;
- is a suitable person to hold the licence, and
2. the applicant has paid the prescribed fee for the issue of the licence.
A person having been issued a licence must continue to be a suitable person or else the licence will be revoked. In determining whether a person is suitable to hold a licence, the PMSA will have regard to all relevant factors, including but not limited to:
For a property management company (PMC) licence —
- whether the company is in liquidation or is the subject of a winding-up order;
- whether a receiver has been appointed in relation to the company;
- whether, in the 5 years before the licence application, the company has entered into a composition or scheme of arrangement with its creditors;
- whether the company has been convicted of a criminal offence;
- whether the company has been convicted of a disciplinary offence; and
- whether every director of the company is a suitable person to be associated with the company’s business of providing property management services.
Applicants for licence and, where applicable, their partners and directors are required to answer certain questions in the application forms concerning their suitability. If any answer to these questions is “yes” or “not sure”, the applicant will be required to provide further information, including, for example, criminal conviction records.
A person commits an offence if the person, in connection with an application for a licence, provides any information or document to the PMSA that is false or misleading in a material particular; and the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the information or document is false or misleading in a material particular. The person who commits the offence is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine of HK$200,000 and to imprisonment for 1 year or on summary conviction to a fine at level 6 and to imprisonment for 6 months.