The planning and execution of building rehabilitation often involves the appointment of various service providers (e.g. Prescribed Building Professionals / Prescribed Registered Contractor / other relevant professionals) to ensure compliance with legal requirement and the provision of required services.

Based on URA’s previous experience in building rehabilitation, a quality service provider is largely conducive to a building rehabilitation project with systematic and effective planning and implementation. Unfortunately, building owners/OCs often relayed that some of the existing service providers varied greatly in terms of service quality or quality of works carried out. The source of information or reference materials available in the market are often incomprehensive, as a result building owners/OCs often encounter difficulties in identifying the appropriate service providers.

In view of the above, the Building Rehabilitation Platform (“the Platform”) has launched the Building Rehabilitation Company Registration Scheme (“BRCRS”)  with the following objectives:

• To establish a one-stop platform which building owners can use to search for service providers;
• To assess service providers’ management systems for performing building rehabilitation works;
• To encourage service providers to keep improving their service; and
• To promote a standard of good practice to service providers.

BRCRS will accept application from service providers under the following categories:

• Consultants providing Authorized Persons services;
• Consultants providing Registered Inspectors services;
• Contractors with Registered General Building Contractors registration (to be released);
• Contractors with Registered Minor Works Contractors (Class I) registration (to be released); and
• Contractors with Registered Fire Service Installation Contractors (Class 1 & 2) registration (to be released).

The Scheme will be rolled out in phases for the application from service providers of the five categories above. The first round of applications include consultant providing Authorized Person services and consultant providing Registered Inspector services. The official application period is tentatively scheduled from 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021. To enable service providers to better understand the requirements of the Scheme and get prepared, the Platform accepts applications from service providers who intend to apply for registration to pay for mock assessments of the scheme from today until 30 June 2021. Service providers can visit the website of the scheme at https://brcrs.brplatform.org.hk/ for more details, and apply through the "Building Rehabilitation Company Registration Scheme" online application system.

The mock assessment will be conducted in accordance with the formal assessment requirements, such that service providers who intended to register under "BRCRS" can experience and understand the assessment criteria before the official launch. Service providers can familiarize themselves with the evaluation procedures, get prepared for evaluation, and plug service gaps for further improvement and enhancement.

In addition, a briefing session on “Building Rehabilitation Company Registration Scheme” will be held on 13 April 2021 to provide details about the Scheme to service providers under the first phase of application. Interested parties may click here to register online.