Hole cuts hairdresser short
(CNS): A longstanding dispute between a landlord and commercial tenant has put a local business woman literally on edge after the landlord, under the cover of darkness, dug a huge hole in front of her business premises on Mary Street in George Town. Monalisa Morganberry-Kudritzki was shocked to discover the gaping and dangerous hole in front of her hairdressing salon when she arrived to start work on Monday, 8 June.
After ringing round to find out if the cavity was down to utility works, she soon discovered it was the work of her landlord who has been trying to remove her from the premises since 2005.
Morganberry-Kudritzki explained to Cayman News Service that she is returning to court again on Wednesday, 22 July, for the next chapter in what has been a drawn out legal dispute with her landlord over anumber of issues. She says, however, that she has always played by the book and has been paying her full rent to her lawyer while the disagreement was being resolved. Despite this, her landlord seems to have taken things to another level with the most recent action, which the Planning Department says is a danger, not just to the tenant and her clients, but the public at large.
Planning have asked the owner to fill in the dangerous hole, which was around five feet deep and right in front of the premises, but a spokesperson from the department told CNS that, as this has not happened, an enforcement notice has now been issued.
The dispute goes back to April 2005 when Morganberry-Kudritzki agreed to lease the unit for her specialist hair restoration and grafting business – catering largely to clients that have medically related hair problems.
After agreeing the terms and giving the landlord one month’s deposit and one month’s rent in advance for the shop, she set about buying the equipment she needed to re-establish and fit out the Hairden, as her original shop had been destroyed in Hurricane Ivan. However, even before the landlord completed the post Ivan repairs to the new unit, Morganberry-Kudritzki discovered that the property had been partitioned, taking off around 1/3 of the floor space she had originally agreed to lease from the owner.
Having asked for an appropriate reduction to the rent, which was refused, she engaged an attorney and has since been paying the full rent to him until the disagreement was resolved in the courts.
With no legal resolution apparently yet in sight, Morganberry-Kudritzki says the landlord has been trying to remove her from the premises and has very nearly succeeded with this latest hole digging escapade.
“I was so devastated when I saw it,” she said. “It is very difficult, almost impossible for me to conduct my business affairs as people can’t get into the shop and it is very dangerous.”
Morganberry-Kudritzki has now had to build a wooden deck in order to gain access at all, but she says that the situation is far from ideal. (Ironically, Planning now also have to give permission for the deck which runs around the edge of the hole.)
Having invested so much in the salon since taking out the lease she has been reluctant to move out, but she says the situation now is so dire she will be forced to move, which means the landlord has effectively succeed in evicting Morganberry-Kudritzki, the long intended goal she suspects, through illegal means.
Planning agreed that the situation was of concern and that the department’s inability to prevent people from doing this sort thing in the first place was a real problem and that it was not fair that the landlord was driving a tenant from her rented premises by breaching planning laws.
Morganberry-Kudritzki said she hoped that something would finally happen when the case returns to the court tomorrow as she feels that despite doing everything she can according to the law, the landlord is by no means playing fair and the ongoing dispute has become far too upsetting to handle.
Category: Headline News
"I have an idea. Let’s all dump our spare construction fill in the hole and fix this problem for the poor tenant!"
WELL DONE!!!!
I see that the hole now has a load of construction fill in it! THANK YOU to the person who rose to the challenge on this.
NOW we need some people to shovel it around to bury the big bits and smooth out the surface. COME ON CAYMAN!!! We can do it!!! Let’s get together Saturday morning for half an hour and flatten that out!
Don’t stand for oppression from the likes of this landlord! DEFEND OURSELVES CAYMAN!!!
I have an idea. Let’s all dump our spare construction fill in the hole and fix this problem for the poor tenant!
If you have any rotten smelly organic garbage instead, just dump it in the yard across from the hole, where the landlord lives.
Cayman justice is a wonderful thing!
Forget picking on the PPM – the UDP have the whole Army of Darkness marching around in their closets! UDP ain’t got enough sense to fill a hole. At least the PPM could find their skeletons and use em to fill the hole. UDP would probably go lookin for dirt or some fool thing.
Now for God’s sake, FILL THE LADY’S HOLE!!!!!!!
Can’t believe this. UDP v PPM ain’t never gonna change. Meanwhile that poor lady cant walk in her front yard. Its a disgrace. Might a got dug on the UDP’s watch, but the seeds of that discontent were sewed back when the PPM were selling their soles.
If we let the PPM use the hole to bury the skeletons they have hiding in their closets*, the hole would be filled in no time.
———————-
* Not that the PPM spend much time in the closet, since they are afraid Captain Underpants might be hiding in there.
Alternate ending:
* Not that they’d ever let anyone come out of the closet in the Cayman Islands, even a skeleton, ’cause that just ain’t allowed ’round here.
This person’s legal training likely came from a drunken weekend affair with a legal secretary. It clearly did not come from attending a law school. Don’t be in a hurry to follow this statement of the law of property, as it is flawed in innumerable ways.
Dear Sally,
I never have and certainly don’t have any intentions of spending any drunken weekend with a legal secretary. However, I would suspect that you are someone who simply don’t have the full background knowledge of the laws of the land and would invite you to go get a set as Govt. needs the money.
But pick sense out of nonsense. 4+ years in dispute. If the POPE was the Landlord he would be frustrated by now if he hadn’t received a cent of money. What I can say is that it seems this Tenants Lawyer is misleading her in someway and possibly used all her money up from the rent they received and just keeps putting off the case and lying to her. IF I was the Tenant, I would have a new Lawyer on the case immediately and transfer that money to them and give them an ultimatum to finalize in X amount of time.
Since SOME Lawyers on this island have a tendency to suck their clients dry financially, this Lawyer should be investigated.
"Furthermore, if this Landlord has been collecting the rent through the Lawyer then the Tenant has a right to remain there in a ‘hold over’ position and all the Landlord has to do is give her 30days notice to vacate. If she still refuses to leave then change the locks and bring in the movers and remove all her items or give her notice to have them out, and if that fails then, dispose of all her items.
Additionally, if the tenant is claiming for upgrades to the property, in commercial rentals the Tenant is always responsible for build out so what’s she complaining about?"
This person’s legal training likely came from a drunken weekend affair with a legal secretary. It clearly did not come from attending a law school. Don’t be in a hurry to follow this statement of the law of property, as it is flawed in innumerable ways.
I am confused? This has been in dispute for 4 years and all during this time according to the article the Tenant has been paying her Lawyer the rent. Why? The Lawyer is not the Owner/Landlord why does he get to keep the money in his escrow account earning interest while this dispute plays out for years.
If I was the owner, and I hadn’t received a penny of the rent for this long, I can assure you that I would get her out.
Furthermore, if this Landlord has been collecting the rent through the Lawyer then the Tenant has a right to remain there in a ‘hold over’ position and all the Landlord has to do is give her 30days notice to vacate. If she still refuses to leave then change the locks and bring in the movers and remove all her items or give her notice to have them out, and if that fails then, dispose of all her items.
Additionally, if the tenant is claiming for upgrades to the property, in commerical rentals the Tenant is always responsible for build out so what’s she complaining about?
This sounds like there is more to this story but if not as far as I can see from reading the Tenant is in the wrong.
Lastly, in reference to the New Residential Tenancies Law 2009, this law was put in place by people who had bad experiences following Hurricane Ivan by the Landlords, but did anyone check to see who these Landords were? The majority were foreigners who don’t live here and when they found that there was a shortage and demand they raised the rents to ridiculous heights, additonally, the companies and corporations relocating their staff back on island actually fueled this peak in rates as they competed with others to secure the rent by jacking up the rates in their negotiations. So to the poster who claimed it was Caymanian owners who did this, let me enlighten you, you are wrong. Ask any Property manager they will confirm what I just said.
To Anonymous; "The majority were foreigners who don’t live here and when they found that there was a shortage and demand they raised the rents to ridiculous heights….. So to the poster who claimed it was Caymanian owners who did this, let me enlighten you, you are wrong"
Let ME enlighten YOU!! YOU are wrong! It happened from LOCAL Caymanian owners as well!! They ALL did it. I know this for a FACT. So STOP with the finger pointing AGAIN!!!
That’s interesting the Compass version leans more favorably towards the landlord……..
Always two sides of the story
Our Planning dept either seems to be hopeless or just left totally ineffectual by poor laws etc. I don’t know which but does anyone know how many shanty houses, stables, cowsheds etc there are in cayman in the bush in residential districts, none of whom obviously have planning permission but because they are put up by born caymanians nonone will say a thing. So why not dig a hole in the grund? If Planning tells you fill it, show them your cayman passport and all will be well.
The whole story needs to be told for this to make sense. But Landlords in Cayman have less rights than their tenants. And the Government will give them even more with that new Tenants and Landlords Law.
This is bad for the investor!
Leave means leave!
Yes, where is the other side to this story? Did CNS contact the landlord? I think she was named in the paper today.
Pathetic behavior by the landlord. The media should name and shame them. I have seen several pedestrians nearly hit by cars by reason of this hole in the ground. Why should thrid parties be hurt because of this landowner’s immaturity?
How long was the lease for? Sounds like 2 bulls locking horns. If the tenant didn’t like it in 2005, why didn’t she leave in 2005? 2006? 2007? Why not find a place that is stress free? Is it worth that much in legal fees for 4 years? A matter of principal I understand but 4 years on, it has to be a draw by now. There is clearly something between these two we don’t know because this makes no sense to me.
Sounds like these two are taking a page from the McKeeva/Desmond Seales playbook.
While I don’t condone the landlord’s actions, I agree that there must be another side to this story. It boggles my mind that instead of thinking twice about a contract that was not being upheld only a month in, the landlord continued to invest in the property for FOUR more years so now it means her losses are even greater. Also, how can she take the liberty of paying rent
to HER lawyer? She should’ve took her losses early and left, all she’s done is dug a hole for herself…literally!
"Also, how can she take the liberty of paying rent to HER lawyer?"
What you don’t seem to comprehend since it was not stated in the article is that the courts instructed the tenant to pay the rent to the courts through the person of her lawyer.
This is absolutely appalling ! The Landlord should be fined and charged over this…this kind of crap only happens here. Think of the lawsuit the Landlord would have if someone were to injure themselves. How can something so simple take so long to be resolved (if in fact the details were outlined correctly in this article) ? If the space is reduced, the Landlord should charge less rent. GREEDY
This type of disagreement always has 2 sides to the story. Let a judge sort it all out.
Don’t worry sweetheart, what goes around comes around. I wouldn’t want to be the Landlord when this comes back to ‘bite him in the arse’.
But this also raises a couple of important issues, ie. the lack of Tennant / Landlord Laws, and that Stautary bodies such as Planning, and Environment, have ‘no Laws to give them teeth’ and as such are incapable of performing MOST of the tasks which they are given.
In Canada (for example), one cannot even cut down a tree without first recieving permission from the Local Govt. authorities. Here, we have large parcels of land bulldozed without planning approval, (by a church no less).
Remember Ivan? When Tennants were unceremoniously evicted from ‘occupiable’ premisis so that landlords could ‘jack-up’ the rent? Yes, WE (Caymanians) did this, and then we try to pass ourselves off as being a ‘Christian counrty’. If that’s being Christian you can keep it.
Word of advice to the Landlord, ‘Man may sleep, but GOD dosn’t sleep’. What you sow, that too shall you reap.
I think this landlord may have dug himself a hole he won’t get out of so easily. 😉
I’m glad the tenant is standing up properly against him and the bully tactics used. You go girl! Snap.