How to Check an Elderly Care Home's Licence and Record in Hong Kong

Before you hand over a deposit, you need to know exactly what kind of home you're placing your relative in — and in Hong Kong that's a question you can actually answer, because the Social Welfare Department (SWD) publishes the regulatory record of every residential care home for the elderly (RCHE). The whole system runs on the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance (Cap. 459) and its Regulation (Cap. 459A), fully in force since 1 June 1996: no licence, no operation. The SWD's Elderly Information Website (elderlyinfo.swd.gov.hk) gives you three things to check — the home's licence status, its warning record over the past 12 months, and its conviction record over the past 24 months — and this guide walks you through all three, plus how to read the home's service profile and fee-charging table, and what a clean record actually does and doesn't prove. If you haven't already, start with our how to choose guide for the big picture, then come back here to do the due diligence.

Step 1: Verify the licence itself

The licence is the legal baseline. Under Cap. 459 every RCHE must hold a current licence covering management and staffing, facilities and equipment, location, structure and design of the premises, building safety, fire precautions, and health and sanitation. The licence is issued by the Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (LORCHE), and each home has a LORCHE number — a code like L0224 that stays with the home — which you'll see at the top of its service profile. The profile also shows the licence's validity period (typically two years, e.g. 01/07/2025 to 30/06/2027) and the licensing capacity (e.g. 83 places). The licence level matters as much as the licence itself: a home licensed only for Care and Attention places can't legally provide nursing-home care, and a home licensed for a lower level of care can't legally take residents who need more. Our nursing vs care guide explains the four licence levels, and the home types guide covers who runs each type of home.

Step 2: Run the LORCHE search

The SWD Elderly Information Website's search engine (elderlyinfo.swd.gov.hk, under Search Engine > Residential Care Homes for the Elderly) is the closest thing Hong Kong has to a public clean-record check. There are 851 RCHEs in the searchable list, and you can filter by district, type of home (subvented, contract, self-financing, private), care level, monthly basic fee, scheme joined, religious background, meal provision, room type and even manpower type (nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker). The two filters you want are under 'Service Quality Information': no conviction record in recent 24 months and no warning record in recent 12 months. Tick both and the list narrows to homes with a clean record within those windows.

1. Go to elderlyinfo.swd.gov.hk and open the Search Engine (Search for Residential Care Services).
2. Enter the home's name in the Name box (English name works best; the search matches the registered English name), or filter by district and home type instead.
3. Under Service Quality Information, tick 'no conviction record in recent 24 months' and 'no warning record in recent 12 months'.
4. Add any other filters that matter to you — care level, room type, monthly fee cap, or a specific staff type such as a nurse.
5. Open the home's Details page and read the LORCHE number, licence validity period, licensing capacity, staffing numbers, and the conviction/warning flags.
6. Download the fee-charging table (收費表) from the profile and read it in full — see Step 5 below.

Step 3: Check the warning and conviction lists

The single most common offence you'll see on the conviction list is under s.11(1) of Cap. 459A — failing to meet the statutory staffing requirement. It appears over and over: in the current list, nearly every home on the conviction page was convicted for exactly this. A care and attention home must run at least one health worker per 30 residents for 13 hours within the specified period (with one nurse counting as two health workers), one care worker per 20 residents for 10 hours, and two staff on duty overnight from 6pm to 7am — and from June 2028, care and attention homes over 60 residents must add one nurse plus one health worker for 8 hours within that window. That's the minimum the law allows, and staffing failures are exactly what the SWD catches most often. Also watch for convictions under s.21(3)(b) of the Ordinance (operating at premises other than those on the licence) and s.21(6)(c) (furnishing false information) — less common, but more serious.

What a clean record does NOT prove

• It's not a recent inspection pass. The warning and conviction lists only reflect breaches that were formally actioned in the past 12 or 24 months. SWD inspection findings are not published home-by-home, so a home with no recorded breach is not the same as a home that was recently inspected and found clean.
• Inspection frequency differs by home type. Subvented, contract and Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS) homes are inspected more rigorously and more often than an ordinary private home — the SWD's inspection effort is not uniform across all 851 homes, and private-home inspections are less frequent.
• A warning is an administrative finding, not proof of wrongdoing in court — and a conviction only proves what the court actually prosecuted. Many minor breaches are corrected after inspection and never surface publicly.
• It says nothing about quality of care. A spotless record doesn't tell you whether staff interact warmly with residents, whether meals are decent, or whether the place smells clean. That's what the visit is for.
• Accreditation is voluntary. Some homes voluntarily join accreditation schemes (HKQAA, Hong Kong Association of Gerontology) or the SWD's Service Quality Group (SQG) scheme — a layer above the legal minimum. As of 2024, only about 55% of private homes had obtained accreditation. A home without a badge isn't unlicensed; it just hasn't opted into the extra layer.

Step 4: Read the service profile and fee-charging table

Every home's service profile on the SWD website is a goldmine. Beyond the licence details it shows staffing numbers by role (home manager, health workers, care workers, ancillary workers, nurses), the number of subsidised and non-subsidised places, room types, meal provision, facilities, and which schemes the home has joined (EBPS, NHPPS, RCSV). And every licensed home must publish a fee-charging table (收費表) — you'll find a download link on the profile, usually in Chinese. Read it for the monthly basic fee by room type and care level, and the deposit and refund conditions. Under the Code of Practice, a home must give 30 days' written notice of any fee increase, and the admission agreement must state the exact monthly fee and every chargeable item. If the fee-charging table contradicts what the salesperson told you on the phone, the table wins. For a full breakdown of what fees cover and the common extras, see our fees guide. One important caveat: if you're applying for a subsidised place, the SWD allocates the home — you check the record of a home you're placed in, not one you choose. The subsidised application guide covers how that works.

Step 5: What records can't tell you — check in person

• Staffing on the actual shift you visit. The profile lists budgeted staff numbers; the roster is what's real. Ask to see the duty roster and count — especially whether there's a nurse on site during the day and two staff overnight, as the staffing rules require.
• The smell test. A strong urine or stale smell is a red flag for continence care and cleaning, whatever the record says.
• Are residents engaged? Talking, moving, in common areas — or parked in front of a TV? Watch how staff interact with residents when they don't know you're looking.
• Fire safety and exits. Are escape routes clear and do exit doors open from the inside without a key? Check call bells reachable from each bed and that bed-exit sensors are in place for residents who need them.
• Meals and special diets. Ask to see an actual meal, not the menu, and check whether special diets (diabetic, low-salt, pureed) are genuinely provided.
• The restraint policy, in writing. Physical or chemical restraint should be last resort with written consent — a rule that tightened in June 2024.