Industrial building to 180-bed student hostel

The description is wrong and must not be used. It conceals a hostel - sleeping accommodation for 180 people - which drives means of escape, fire service installations, sanitary provisions, ventilation and the licence. If the plans do not describe the real use, the approval does not cover it, the works are unauthorised and the licence cannot be obtained. Submitting a plan you know to be misleading exposes the firm to prosecution and ARB discipline.

Approvals, in a sensible order:

1. Planning. If the OZP shows Hostel as Column 2, a section 16 application to the Town Planning Board is needed. Check the Notes carefully: some Industrial zones permit hotel/hostel use only under conditions, for example where the building does not contain hazardous industrial uses.
2. Lease. The Government lease is limited to industrial and godown purposes. Apply to the Lands Department for modification or waiver and budget for premium; the modification is normally conditional on planning approval and on compliance with building and fire requirements.
3. Buildings Ordinance. Full A&A plans under section 14 with a Registered Structural Engineer for floor loading, openings and any new staircase. The change of use triggers the fire safety requirements of the Code of Practice for Fire Safety in Buildings 2011, and the building is subject to the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance as a pre-1987 industrial building.
4. Fire services. FSD submission for sprinklers, detection, hose reels and exit signage; the single staircase and the warehouse above are the key issues.
5. Licence. After completion, a hotel/guesthouse licence under the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance from the Home Affairs Department, requiring a certificate of compliance from BD and FSD.
6. Others. Drainage, water, ventilation, and the operator's identity.

Planning and lease can run in parallel, but the lease modification usually waits for planning. Building plans can be prepared in parallel and submitted once the planning position is clear, to avoid abortive design. Realistically 12 to 18 months before opening.

The single staircase is the decisive issue. For a hostel, the means of escape must provide two independent escape routes, or a protected route with permitted travel distances, from every sleeping room. A 180-bed hostel on three floors with one staircase is unlikely to comply, and the fact that the building is existing does not exempt a change of use: the new use has to meet the current standard, subject only to what the BA accepts for an existing building.

Studies to commission first:

• A fire strategy with a fire engineer: travel distances, protected lobby, smoke control, interaction with the industrial floors above, and whether a second staircase can be formed internally or externally.
• Structural feasibility of a new staircase and new floor openings, and floor loading for dormitories and the café.
• Separation between the hostel and the cold-storage warehouse and printing works: hazardous processes, vehicles on the shared ramp, noise and fire spread. Mixing sleeping accommodation with industrial use may be acceptable only with a high degree of separation and possibly the consent of other owners.
• Water supply and sprinklers: the building has none, so a tank, pump room and pipework must be found.
• Whether the other nine floors' owners will cooperate over common parts, the ramp and the fire safety upgrade - a Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance direction, if served, covers the whole building.

Advice. Before any strip-out, complete the fire strategy and a structural survey, and take the concept to a pre-submission meeting with BD and FSD. If two escape routes cannot be achieved, the scheme is not viable at 180 beds; a smaller bed count or a different use may be. Tell the client now, not after the lease is signed.

Strip-out before approval and consent is building works without approval if it involves demolition of building elements, and it may disturb asbestos, structural elements or fire services. Under section 14 of the Buildings Ordinance, no building works may start without approval of plans and consent to commence. Demolition of partitions, ceilings and services may be building works and may require a demolition plan and, in an old building, an asbestos survey by a registered specialist before any disturbance.

The lease and planning risks are worse. Starting work signals to the Lands Department and the Planning Department that the use has changed before any modification or permission, which can trigger enforcement and prejudice the applications. If the hostel later proves unviable, the client has spent money and may have to reinstate.

Practical alternative. If the client wants to use the time, do the work that involves no building works: measured survey, structural appraisal, asbestos survey, fire strategy, M&E capacity checks, and the planning and lease submissions. A soft strip of loose fittings may be possible if it is genuinely not building works - confirm with BD first and record the position.

Advice in writing. Explain the sequencing and the risk of enforcement, and that the perceived savings are illusory against a stop-work order, a failed lease modification or a reinstatement liability. If the client proceeds regardless, record the instruction and consider whether you can continue to act.