居屋裝 Wall Bed 要注意咩?
— Hong Kong HOS estate rules, walk-through.

The 4 rule sources you need to clear

Most HOS owners only know about #1 and #4. The middle two are where most "wait you can't do that" surprises come from.

1. HK Buildings Department (BD). Wall beds are furniture, not structural alteration. No BD approval required. This is the same rule whether you're in a private estate, HOS, or HKHA public housing.
2. Deed of Mutual Covenant (DMC) for your block. The DMC is the legal contract every owner signed when they bought their flat. It usually has clauses about external-wall alteration (not relevant for wall beds), but rarely restricts internal-wall furniture mounting. We read the DMC for the specific block during the free measurement.
3. Owners' Corporation (法團) house rules. Each estate's 法團 may have its own house rules about drilling hours, lift bookings, debris disposal, and contractor liability insurance. This is where 80% of HOS-specific surprises come from. We file the lift booking and noise-hours form for you.
4. Estate-specific by-laws + management office (管理處). Some HOS estates require written management approval before any drilling. Others don't. We check this before quoting.

What's typically allowed in HOS flats

In our experience installing across multiple HOS estates since 2019:

• Wall mounting on internal walls — yes. Concrete, brick, or partition with structural backing.
• Drilling for lag bolts — yes with permitted-noise hours (typically 09:00–18:00 weekdays, varies by estate).
• Cabinet up to ceiling height — yes. Floor-to-ceiling cabinets are standard.
• Recessed installation (cutting INTO the wall) — usually no. Most HOS DMCs prohibit removing structural mass from the wall. We don't do recessed wall beds in HOS flats.
• External-wall alteration — no. Anything visible from the outside (e.g. window grille modification) is HOS-restricted. Not relevant for wall beds in 99% of cases.

The approval flow — what actually happens

Here's the typical sequence we follow for an HOS install. Your specific estate may differ; we adjust per-estate.

1. Day 0 — WhatsApp first contact. Tell us the estate name. We look up the public DMC + any 法團 rules we have on file.
2. Day 2 — Free home measurement. Our team verifies wall structure, photographs the door / lift / corridor for access logistics, and asks 管理處 for the alteration policy in writing.
3. Day 3–5 — Estate by-law check. If the estate requires written approval before drilling, we draft the request letter and submit it on your behalf. Most 法團 turn around in 5–10 working days.
4. Day 10–14 — Approval received. We confirm the install date with 管理處 + book the lift + file the noise-hours form.
5. Day 14+ — Production + install. Standard 2–6 week production · single-day on-site install.

If approval is refused (rare, but happens — usually for estates with very-old DMC clauses), we tell you upfront and refund any deposit. We don't proceed with an install your 法團 hasn't signed off on.

4 anonymised real HOS estate examples

We've installed in a wide range of HOS estates. Below are 4 representative cases.

Estate A — Sha Tin · 1990s HOS

Verdict: approved without paperwork. The DMC was permissive on internal furniture. 法團 had no specific drilling-approval rule. We just filed the standard lift booking + noise-hours form. Time from quote to install: 18 days.

Estate B — Tung Chung · early-2000s HOS

Verdict: required written 法團 approval. The estate had added a "no anchor heavier than 30 kg" clause in 2018. We submitted the SBLM mechanism's spec sheet (showing the static load is distributed across multiple anchors, each <30 kg) and the 法團 approved within 7 working days. Time from quote to install: 28 days.

Estate C — Tin Shui Wai · Tenants Purchase Scheme

Verdict: longest paperwork delay we've seen. The TPS lease added an additional Housing Authority alteration-permit requirement on top of the 法團. We worked with the customer to file with both, and HKHA approved in 14 working days. Time from quote to install: 38 days. The customer was frustrated; she thanked us at handover.

Estate D — Yuen Long · 2010s HOS

Verdict: refused. The DMC for this block (an unusual one) explicitly required a structural engineer's letter for any wall anchor over 25 kg static. The cost of the letter (~HKD 8,000) made the project uneconomical for the customer. We told her not to proceed and refunded the deposit. She bought a sofa bed instead, which fit her situation fine.

The 5 questions to ask BEFORE quoting

1. What's the exact estate name? (We'll look up DMC + 法團 history.)
2. Is this a regular HOS sale, GSH, or Tenants Purchase Scheme? (Different paperwork.)
3. Have you done renovation in this flat before? (If yes, the previous contractor's experience tells us what's allowed.)
4. Is the flat currently your primary residence, or are you doing this between leases? (Affects timing.)
5. What's the wall material on the install side? (Concrete vs partition matters for the alteration permit threshold.)

What we'll never do in an HOS flat

• Drill before approval. If your 法團 hasn't signed off, we don't put a hole in the wall. Full stop.
• Backdate paperwork. Some contractors offer to "do it now and file later". We don't.
• Recess the cabinet INTO the wall. Removes structural mass. DMC-prohibited in most HOS estates.
• Use plastic anchors instead of structural bolts. Even if "the management office won't notice." They might not, but year 5 of your install is when the bed comes down at 3 a.m.

If you're in an HOS flat and considering a wall bed

Send us a WhatsApp with your estate name. Within 24 hours we'll tell you whether the estate is straightforward (~70% of HOS we've worked in) or requires written approval (~25%) or has historical refusals (~5% — and we'll tell you what we know). The lookup is free and we don't pressure follow-up if the answer is "not for you."