I don’t stay on the top floor but I was a former-jmb member.
From my experience, I have not heard a whole lot of complain from top floor owners. However, there was one leaking incident I recall though. Leaking is perhaps a misnomer to describe the situation because it was raining in the house itself and the plaster ceiling collapsed because of the weight of the water collected.
Though it’s the JMB’s responsibility, the speed of the repair will vary depending on availability of budget and also sourcing for quotation from contractors. It will vary from days to weeks, worst case scenario months. If your tenant you may want to choose to terminate the tenancy arrangement.
About the noise, interestingly even though the water tank is located on the top floor, the noise is generally suppressed. If however you are living in midway points of the condominium, you may experience some noise every now and then.
Am not an expert but this is what I gathered from my technical team. The water is pump from group to top floor. However, the water pressure is generally not strong enough to reach the top of the condominium. So there may be additional pump (or was it valve) located say on the 15th floor of the condominium, before the water reaches the 30th floor of the condo.
The water from the ground floor will need to pass through a “backflow valve” (again not sure if this is the correct term), this valve is intended to prevent water that has gone up from flowing back into the water tank. Over time due to wear and tear, the spring in the backflow valve will be worn out. Instead of gently closing, it will slam against the valve, as it closes (i.e. when the pumping of water is halted).
Believe it or not, the noise generated from the backflow valve travelling from the ground floor to the 14th floor of my condo. The noise is sound loud that it is able to cause vibration to the owner’s unit on the 14th floor.
Whether you unit is heaty or not, depends on the facing of your unit. If you get either the western or ESPECIALLY the eastern sun (sai cheh) or both then be prepared to have your eggs cooked. Other than that, I don’t think top floors should be very hot… If your tenant or prospective buyer, I suggest you pay a visit to the condo at around 1pm in the afternoon to get a feel of things.
Conclusion:-
1) no and unlikely.
2) depends on the facing of your condo (west/eastern facing take note).
3) leakage rare but when it does happens, do expect flooding.
Thanks for such detailed explanation. After hearing you guys..seems like not so bad to get top floor for own stay also instead of my earlier worrisome.