IN order to tackle the long-existing conflicts frequently occurring in urban villages regarding the legitimacy of properties, the city government might outsource property management to third-party companies, according to Shenzhen Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau.

Under this mode of cooperation, the property management companies would be paid to provide a certain number of public services authorized by the government and conduct multiple operation modes in the urban villages.

The bureau also pledged to work with other government departments to set up policies to support property management services in urban villages regarding taxation, financing, recruitment and training of professional talents, renovation and maintenance of facilities and so forth.

The urban villages are a unique outcome of Shenzhen’s fast urbanization over the past few decades, but the management of the villages has been one of the recurring problems for a long time in the city.

One of the deputies of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress, Liu Xiaoyan, raised two issues that have existed for a long time during this year’s “two sessions” of local legislative and advisory bodies.

One is the obscure legitimacy of some buildings inside the villages, which causes bottlenecks when the government attempts to deal with conflicts by legal means. The other is the ambiguous definition of a property owner and his identity, rights, obligations and responsibilities because there is currently no relevant law.

In some cases when conflicts arose, the builders of the buildings would claim to be the property owners in order to enjoy some welfare and government subsidies, but when it came to fulfilling obligations such as spending money to maintain the facilities in the villages, some of them chose to shirk these responsibilities.

“Due to the lack of legal support, the legitimacy of many buildings in the urban villages fails to be clarified, which makes introducing property management services hard in the villages,” said Liu.

The government departments have also been frequently caught in dilemmas since there are no legal property owners of some buildings.

For instance, courts do not hear lawsuits that are lodged against property owners who delay payment of water and electricity bills because the builders don’t need to pay for the tenants. Thus, the property management companies would, in return, stop the supply of water and electricity under such circumstance.

Liu proposed to add several articles to the coming regulation on the city’s property management this year. She suggested the regulation should incorporate rules to set up autonomous property management institutions in urban villages.

According to the bureau, the city government had already issued a notice as early as 2006 requiring all district-level governments to complete the comprehensive treatment of old residential areas and introduce property management services within three years.

Though 98 percent of residential areas in Shenzhen have their property management services covered, there are still vexing problems such as the high cost of facility maintenance and how to develop property management institutions to make them sustainable without government subsidies.

The problems of urban villages have been regarded as one of the key missions for Shenzhen this year as several fatal accidents took place at the risky buildings in the urban villages.

The amendment to the regulations has also been listed as one of the study projects for the standing committee of the Municipal People’s Congress this year. (Zhang Qian)