Is it legal to impound my car?

In Hong Kong's private road, often times we see warning sign about impounding illegally parked car. Like this one below; the picture was taken at a mall in Tseung Kwan O recently.

In some other cases, the public even question if facility management staff were given incentives to impound due to the observed swiftness and quantity of the impounding occurred when compared to other similar places.

For anyone to legally carry the impounding and collect the subsequent penalty fine, the legal foundation must come from the law.

We researched the matter and found the law that empowers the private road owner to carry the impounding action.

Chapter 374: Road Traffic Ordinance

Part 14: Private Road

Section 121: Regulation of parking on private roads

Subsection 2:

However, before delegating and exercising that power, careful planning must be done including:

1) Clear signs and strategic placement of signs.

2) Proper documentation that sends power all the way to the frontline staff that actually uses the impounding device.

3) Impounding device must be of a model that was approved by the commissioner.

Insufficient planning could lead to legal dispute and bad publicity; both would negatively affect the business.

We would also add that adequate legal training to frontline staff is important. If staff can show where the power comes from, they can exercise it properly with adequate confidence.