Wang Fuk Court was an ordinary housing estate in Tai Po, Hong Kong. It had eight 31-storey blocks, nearly 2,000 flats and about 4,600 residents. In 2024, a HK$336 million renovation wrapped all eight blocks in scaffolding, nets and foam boards.
On 26 November 2025, a fire, most likely started by a cigarette, raced up that wrapping. The alarms did not sound. In all, 168 people died, 79 were injured and about 4,600 residents lost their homes. The investigators’ report, released on 29 October 2026, found that authorities mishandled 46 resident complaints about safety hazards.
Read: Warnings Ignored, Lives Lost: What Wang Fuk, Grenfell and Champlain Teach Us About High-Rise Failure
What did the investigators find?
The investigators found six failures that matter to every strata building.
- Fire risk was never planned for. No planning document from 2016 to April 2024 treats fire risk during the works as an issue.
- The contractor and consultant knew every risk as it arose. Those risks included non-fire-retardant nets, flammable foam, all eight blocks wrapped at once, smoking and fire systems shutdown for months. They 'deliberately cut corners'.
- Owners were never told three critical facts. The nets failed a burn test in October 2024, the 2025 replacement nets were non-fire-retardant, and the fire alarms had been disabled.
- The owners’ committees were not to blame. As lay volunteers who raised concerns, they were entitled to rely on the professionals.
- The building manager and fire contractor knew the systems were off. Its staff switched off the master power. The fire contractor found it a week before the fire and did nothing.
- The suppliers sold what was ordered. The choice of non-fire-retardant nets lay with the scaffolder, acting on the contractor’s instructions.
What should Australian owners and managers learn?
Australian owners and managers should learn five lessons from Wang Fuk Court.
- Demand the fire safety plan before major works start. In June 2024 the consultant warned that the foam boards ignite easily and smoke heavily. The contractor insisted, the consultant signed off and nobody proposed a safeguard. Insist on a written fire risk plan, tabled and minuted at a committee meeting. Do not rely on the word of the contractor or strata manager.
- Do your own due diligence on the project manager and main contractor. The consultant assessed the tenders. Media reports say the contractor scored points for 'no prosecution record', yet the Labour Department later confirmed four convictions in five years, including inadequate scaffold inspections. In 2023 a disciplinary board had banned it from minor works for four months. Nobody picked up its links to at least five other bidders. The consultant’s registered inspector died in 2022, yet his name stayed on record. Ask who did the checks, then see the results yourself.
Read: The One Conflict of Interest That Could Cost YourBuilding Millions
- Watch scope creep. Essential repairs were estimated at HK$102 million. The consultant’s added items took that to HK$224.9 million, then about HK$360 million for the chosen option. The investigators found 'no one ever assessed whether those additional items were necessary'. The fire service tank works, probably unnecessary in most blocks, led to the alarms being switched off. Every added item needs a reason and an independent check.
Read: Why Your Strata Remediation Quote Is Probably Too High
- Record resident complaints, then act on them. The first smoking complaint was logged on 29 July 2024. Complaints about smoking, foam and nets kept coming for 16 months. One Facebook post warned that hundreds could die. Log every complaint, escalate it until owners are satisfied it has been dealt with, and report patterns to each meeting.Three themes repeating for a year should have stopped the job.
- Watch how proxies are framed and used. The consultant won its vote with 56.69 per cent, the contractor with 54.79 percent. Thin margins make proxies decisive. A media investigation found 54 people collected 254 proxies for the 2021 meeting that appointed the consultant. At least three came from owners who had died. The investigators treated proxy capture as a governance failure. Be wary of a proxy pitched as support for 'getting the repairs done' when the vote appoints a particular firm. Ask who is collecting, what each proxy authorises, and check your state’s limits.
Read: Whose Motion is it Anyway?
Why does this matter in Australia?
Wang Fuk Court matters in Australia because our buildings run on the same model: volunteer committees relying on professionals who know more than they do. Owners there spotted most risks first. The professionals withheld the facts that would have let them act. Asking for documents, checking records and pressing complaints is how committees narrow that gap.
Michael Teys has more than 30 years’ experience as a strata lawyer and academic and has owned 11 strata management agencies throughout Australia. He has a Master of Philosophy (Built Environment) and Bachelor of Laws. He lectures and writes widely about strata management issues in Australia and internationally.
