The City of Vancouver will seek a court injunction against the owners of a Granville Street single-room-occupancy hotel to have them comply with 105 violations related to safety and maintenance.
City council gave city staff the green light Wednesday to seek the injunction in B.C. Supreme Court because the owners dont have a plan to clean up the Clifton Hotel at 1125 Granville St.
The hotel, which has 73 rooms, is listed as the second-worst building on the citys rental property database. Violations included melted electrical devices, no running water for six days, the lack of fire walls between floors and walls, inoperable washrooms, cracked and bulging walls and a faulty structural beam.
Zohreh Fazi-Mashhadi, Abolghasem Abdollahi and Yahya Nickpour are the principal directors of the company that owns the hotel. Recent efforts by staff to work with Abdollahi and Nickpour to bring the hotel into compliance have been unsuccessful, said the report, adding that the business relationship between the two men fizzled.
Although these violations are serious, staff feel the building should not be evacuated at this time, the report said. In the event the owners choose to vacate the building instead of performing the repairs, staff will be available to assist tenants for relocation.
Before council voted to proceed with the injunction, Abdollahi told council he was doing my best to address the violations and wanted two months reprieve.
In addressing council, resident Shawn Thorpe described the hotel as a shithole crawling with bedbugs, mice and cockroaches. He invited council to visit the hotel.
mhowell@vancourier.com
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