Interview with Dora Chan, Inventor of the “E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement” (CLIC)

The online Community Legal Information Centre (CLIC) recently uploaded an e-package of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Residential Tenancy Agreement.  The package includes a tenancy agreement template in English and Chinese which tenants and landlords can use to structure their legal relations.  Principal Lecturer Dora Chan, Adjunct Associate Professor Edmund Cham, and their team of students/graduates developed the templates along with a set of guidance notes with the assistance of the HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund.  HKU Legal Scholarship Blog caught up with Dora to find out more about her project.

1. What motivated this project and what is its aim?

Currently, if members of the public want to enter into a tenancy agreement on their own, the most common means is to buy a sample tenancy agreement from a stationery shop or to download a sample agreement from the internet. All these samples are not satisfactory as they are not prepared and reviewed by persons competent in tenancy law. In one of the stationery shop sample, one of the clause refers to legislation from 1952 which had been repealed and some of the terms used in samples are archaic. If the public use inappropriate samples for renting their residential homes, it may result in disputes and problems between the landlord and tenant which can have significant impact on their daily lives. In many cases, the public may not want to engage a lawyer to prepare a residential tenancy agreement as it can be costly and time consuming. 

     The aim of the E-package is to provide the public with a properly prepared residential tenancy agreement template. Members of the public can enter into a proper residential tenancy agreement using the E-package without the need and costs to engage a lawyer or an estate agent. 

2. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

Any member of the public who would like to enter into a residential tenancy agreement on his or her own. 

3. Can this substitute for the assistance of a lawyer or only supplement?

Depending on the individual circumstances, if the transaction is a simple letting of a residential flat, the public can use the template tenancy agreement by filling in the essential details of name of parties, rent, term of tenancy and deposit and they can have a workable tenancy agreement. For complicated transactions, they may still need to engage a lawyer.

4. Is there a purpose to having a bilingual agreement? 

It would give a choice to the public as to whether they want the tenancy agreement to be in Chinese or English.

5. Why should someone use this new “E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement”? 

The public can have free online access to a residential tenancy agreement properly prepared and vetted by the students and staff of the Faculty of Law, HKU who have competent legal knowledge on HK tenancy law. The guidance notes also provide a comprehensive guide to the public on how to stamp and register timely a residential tenancy agreement to avoid incurring late fees and penalty.

6. How is this related to HKU's goals to promote knowledge exchange and experiential learning? 

In the course of preparing the E-package, the law students in the E-package team gained the valuable experience in applying their legal knowledge and English and Chinese drafting skills in preparing the E-package which is beneficial and useful to the general public. The practical experience gained by the students in producing the E-package would be most advantageous to them as future lawyers and would also serve the worthy purpose of knowledge exchange between HKU and the society. 

7. Why is this project unique?

As far as I am aware, the E-package is the first online website which provides a properly prepared residential tenancy agreement template and comprehensive guidelines on stamping and registering a residential tenancy agreement.

8. Who can access the free agreement package? And, where?

Any member of the public can have free access to the E-package from the HKU CLIC website. The URLs are as follows in the three languages (English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese):-

http://www.clic.org.hk/en/topics/DIY_Residential_Tenancy_Agreement

http://www.clic.org.hk/tc/topics/DIY_Residential_Tenancy_Agreement

http://www.clic.org.hk/sc/topics/DIY_Residential_Tenancy_Agreement​

9. What if the users encounter problems when using the e-package? Who can they contact? What can they do?

The E-package is intended to be a self-explanatory document. If the public finds the E-package does not suit their specific needs, they would have to seek legal advice from a lawyer.

HKU Law Faculty Awarded Four KE Impact Project Awards 2017/18

The University of Hong Kong's Knowledge Exchange (KE) Funding Scheme for Impact Projects supports (A) projects that have the potential to create social, economic, environmental or cultural impacts for industry, business or the community by building on expertise or knowledge in the University; and (B) projects designed to collect evidence for corroboration and evaluation of impacts. Engagement projects that aim to benefit non-academic communities beyond Hong Kong are strongly encouraged.  

     The Faculty of Law was successful in obtaining four awards in the 2017/18 round of funding, each in the amount of HK$100,000.  Congratulations to Dora Chan, Katherine Lynch, Anne Cheung and Richard Wu.  The details of their projects are described below:

Ms Dora Chan 
E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement 
The proposed project aims to provide the public community with a template residential tenancy agreement and a set of useful guidelines (including stamping and registration procedures) on how to enter into a valid residential tenancy agreement. Members of the public can then use and adapt the template to independently enter into a tenancy agreement for their residential homes, an important document that has a significant impact on their daily lives, without the costs and trouble of engaging a lawyer. The main objective is to provide free legal support to the community and to encourage knowledge exchange on tenancy matters. 

Ms Katherine Lynch 
Evaluation of the Children’s Issues Forums & Legal Reform of Child and Family Law & Policy in Hong Kong 
This project aims to collect evidence for corroboration and evaluation of impacts arising from the research and knowledge exchange project, “Children’s Issues Forums & Legal Reform of Child and Family Law in Hong Kong”, which created a multidisciplinary forum enhancing policy and legal reform for children’s issues in Hong Kong. The project will evaluate through quantitative and qualitative measures the impact of the project on increasing public awareness of children’s issues, changing legal policy on and creating pressure for law reform in Hong Kong’s child and family justice system. 

Professor Anne Cheung 
Hong Kong SAR Treaties e-Library 
The proposed project aims to provide free access to legal information for the public in Hong Kong by building a one-stop comprehensive and electronically searchable database of treaties and international agreements applied to the Hong Kong SAR in Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII). The key objective is to support the community and engage in knowledge exchange.

Dr Richard Wu 
Engaging Local School Teachers with Common Law Concepts and Values Through Experiential Learning 
This project is a pioneering interdisciplinary collaboration in common law education for local school teachers between academics from HKU Law and Social Science Faculties as well as academics from two other local universities. On basis of the project team members’ previous teaching and research projects on common law education for ‘non-law’ students and experiential learning in law, as well as teacher education, this project will engage local school teachers with common law concepts and values through experiential learning like case discussion, personal sharing by senior lawyers, and visual media . The project attempts to impact local school teachers by promoting their understanding of the common law system in Hong Kong and enhance their awareness of general common law concepts and specific common law values like justice and equality. 

HKU Teaching Excellence Awards 2015 - Law Faculty Wins Three Awards

Congratulations to Rick Glofcheski, Katherine Lynch and Marco Wan for winning University level teaching awards for 2015.  Here is an excerpt from the President, Professor Peter Mathieson's announcement:

"The Selection Panel was deeply impressed with the awardees’ dedication to teaching, their tireless and creative efforts to make learning enjoyable and challenging, and the impact that they have made on their students’ learning. Because of the eminent achievements of two candidates for the University Distinguished Teaching Award, the Panel decided unanimously to honour both of them. 

University Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor Joseph C.W. Chan, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Rick A. Glofcheski, Department of Law, Faculty of Law [**Watch the video below demonstrating how Prof Glofcheski he has used the 'flipped classroom' method to advance teaching and learning at HKU. Click here to see and read more.]

Outstanding Teaching Award
Dr. Chun-kit Chui, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering
Ms. Katherine L. Lynch, Department of Law, Faculty of Law
Dr. Julian A. Tanner, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Miss Nicole J. Tavares, Faculty of Education
Dr. Marco M.H. Wan, Department of Law, Faculty of Law 

Teaching Innovation Award
Dr. Michael G. Botelho, Faculty of Dentistry

The awardees will be honoured at a presentation ceremony on Monday May 9, 2016. Please do join us for that if you can. Their names will be posted on the Teaching Excellence Awards Honour Board."

At the Faculty level earlier this year, the following three colleagues were awarded Faculty of Law Outstanding Teaching Awards by the Dean in February 2016:

1. Dora Chan, Principal Lecturer, Department of Law

Dora is an exemplary teacher. She has helped junior-year students overcome the daunting task of acquiring legal skills that are crucial to their future success as a lawyer, designed a postgraduate JD course that suits the needs of the students, and taken up the shepherding role of Deputy Head (Student Affairs) in the Department of Law. 

2. Chen Jianlin, Assistant Professor, Department of Law

Jianlin is a dedicated, enthusiastic and gifted teacher. He has designed new courses and used innovative teaching methodology in his teaching. He has also taken the initiative to organize seminars and workshops to promote research and presentation skills among undergraduate and postgraduate students.

3. Nigel Davis, Principal Lecturer, Department of Professional Legal Education

Nigel is one of the e-learning pioneers in the Department of Professional Legal Education. As a member of two e-learning committees, he has reviewed and promoted e-learning initiatives including MOOCs. He has also designed and implemented a new elective for the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws.