Neighbours of the Royal Albion Hotel who have been living in limbo for months say they have been left abandoned and out of pocket and still don’t have a date when they can return.
Residents of the nine flats in Lace House have not been able to return to their homes since July 15 because of the risk of the hotel collapsing onto it.
They were told last week it could be as soon as mid-November – but with storms set to hamper demolition this date is far from certain.
Most are now sofa surfing or stumping up thousands of pounds to live in hotels. All but one are tenants who pay rent via Oakley Property, which told most they had to keep paying rent at first – but that they had to find their own alternative accommodation.
They say that for weeks, they had no contact from the council about how the demolition was progressing, and why there were not allowed back in.
They were eventually allowed access for one day to pick up belongings on 21 October, when they found maggot-ridden fridges and smoke-damaged furnishings.
And all say Britannia Hotels, which owns the Royal Albion, has done nothing to help them – or even had the courtesy to simply get in touch.
Elvis Volbergs and Sergey Vishnevsky live in one of the flats, and were the only ones Brighton and Hove News has spoken to lucky enough to have contents insurance that covers alternative accommodation – but only up to £10,000 which ran out weeks ago.
They told Brighton and Hove News they only stopped paying rent when their insurance company told them to several weeks after the fire.
Sergey said: “If we didn’t have this insurance, I don’t know what we would have done because the council wouldn’t help us.
“We still have a tenancy agreement in place. That’s why we are still paying for the hotel right now.
“Britannia Hotels completely don’t care. They are not helping in any way. The council have made a few attempts to contact them but have heard nothing.”
Elvis said: “The council told us the wall next to Lace House – that’s 300 tonnes of weight and they can’t predict if it’s going to fall.
“They told us if you went in and the wall falls on the building we would be looking for your remains in the rubble.”
Another couple, who live together in another of the flats, say nobody has given them any advice or help with finding somewhere else to live.
One said: “It took the council two months to contact us to give us any information at all and before that we were left completely in the dark about what was going on- We were just sent to the online community hub.
Another said: “We had a very traumatic situation where we were left homeless in the Leonardo hotel lobby the night of the fire and the next day they wouldn’t offer us a night in a hotel or any help whatsoever until we begged for one night in Travelodge just for a nights sleep.
“Our letting agents have been awful about it and made our other neighbours still pay rent but I refused to pay since the day of the fire.
“We were told the hotel may collapse on our home – flattening it and we don’t have any insurance. I also have my late fathers ashes in my home on the side of the hotel so that’s been my main worry.”
Another tenant, who also wished to remain anonymous, said it was only after calling and emailing several times a day and finally getting the council to write on his behalf that he was given a refund for his rent.
He said: “I was one of the only people in the building who was there when the fire started. I was in my flat and I started smelling this acrid smell and thought it was in the building and then an hour passed and I started to see all the fire brigade turn up.
“I thought they’ll obviously just put that out. An hour after that I started seeing falling debris. They started putting a cordon up around the building and I grabbed what I could and got out.
“There’s been no support from anybody. The council said you have to pay for your own emergency accommodation. Not only have I been forcibly evicted from my home, I have had to pay twice over to live since 15 July.
“There’s a lot of us who are incredibly angry. I think it’s disgusting the way we have been treated.”
Abdulrahman Alajmi, who is studying at the University of Brighton, has been staying with family in Luton and Manchester and then in hotels once term started again.
He said: “Nobody has helped me with anything. I approached the council and they gave me a phone number but nobody answered.
“It’s not my fault the hotel was on fire. The security guys laugh and tell me it’s going to take a long time.
“I paid Oakley six months’s rent up front from May to September. They asked me for the next payment in September, but I told them I can’t give them the money. They told me then they would freeze the rent.
It’s Britannia Hotels’ responsibility. I’m not a UK citizen but if I was, I would sue them. The hotel should take full responsibility for everything. None of us did anything wrong.”
Brighton and Hove City Council had not responded for a request for comment at the time of publication.
However, in an email sent to residents last week, a council officer said: “I’m pleased to say that progress on the site has been going well.
“The manual demolition (with the workers in cages using hand tools to dismantle the walls) has now been completed, with the remaining parts to be removed with mechanical demolition.
“This means that the work is less weather dependent, so can proceed at a quicker pace. There is still a weather dependent element to the work, which is the demolition curtain.
“This is a barrier put up between the active demolition and Lace House, to prevent any falling debris hitting and damaging the Lace House building. The curtain cannot be used in ‘storm level’ winds.
“The site surveyor has been discussing the timeline with the demolition supervisor and they have advised that the demolition and hoarding could be brought to a safe position in approximately two week’s time.
“This is to allow for the remainder of the section to be mechanically demolished and for the hoarding to be put up between the site and Lace House, so that the demolition can continue with a low risk of debris hitting your building.”
Oakley Property said: “In the first instance we were told that the residents would be back into there apartments within two to three weeks, so we did ask tenants to continue with the rent payments due at the time, and advised we would speak to our landlord clients to authorise a refund based on the date of their return.
“Unfortunately this has gone on a lot longer than envisaged making this arrangement obsolete.
“There wasn’t a blanket response to all tenants regarding rent payments because each apartment is owned by a different landlord, so we were waiting for advice from the authorities and instructions from the individual property owners accordingly.
“As soon as we have full access to the building we will be fully inspecting each apartment and deal with any issues, so that the residents can move back in asap.
“It will be the landlords who foot the bill for this while they try to claim on either their own landlord insurance or the insurance of the building that has caused the problems with Lace House due to the fire.
“This is something we have not experienced before, and we have been given limited information to work from in order to keep our tenants and landlords fully up to speed.”
Britannia Hotels has not responded to any media requests for comment since the fire first broke out.
Despite no date for moving back in, some residents are trying to remain optimistic about their return.
Sergey said: “When we get back in, we’re going to have a party. At least we will have a sea view now.”
Why haven’t the Housing department helped? People who are made homeless through ‘flood, fire, or other disaster’ are legally entitled to support! https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/priority_need/who_has_a_priority_need
I suspect some solicitors will be able to start making some sense of this insurance mess, eventually.
Why is the demolition equipment still there nearly four months after the fire?
High time council got things back to normal and commenced the restoration of this Grade II* Listed building.
Barry, appreciate you’re part of the “blame the council for everything” mob, but it’s a privately owned building so thankfully it’s absolutely not the council’s (or tax payers) responsibility to restore or rebuild. You need to direct your criticism and concerns directly to Britannia Hotels, who will also be paying for the demolition and all the inconvenience they’ve caused to these poor residents.
Sue the council.
Solved.
Brittania Hotels should be utterly ashamed. What a disgraceful way to treat people. Spread the word about them!