The electricity supply to the First Federation building was disconnected by the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) over the weekend—a move that dozens of tenants, including city lawyers, say is part of an orchestrated attempt by the government to force them out.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday said that the move was necessary as the four-storey building, located at the corners of Croal Street and Manget Place, is “a public health hazard” and he questioned how professionals could continue to occupy it.
In addition to lawyers’ offices, the building also houses a driving school, a private school and a snackette. When Stabroek News visited the building yesterday, its interior was all darkness. Mosquitos swarmed throughout and immediately attacked the legs of this reporter. Most of the rooms were shut although someone was using a torch light to make his/her way around.
Efforts to contact GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bharat Dindyal for comment were futile but Nandlall explained to Stabroek News that as landlord, the Public Trustee was notified by the government’s electrical inspectorate that the electrical wiring in the building was hazardous.
He said a letter was sent to the Public Trustee and GPL regarding the issue and sometime last week the power company sent a letter to him and the occupants of the building, informing that under the relevant legislation, they (the occupants) were being notified that GPL will be taking steps to remove the electrical wiring to the building.
“The building most importantly is manifestly unfit for human habitation,” Nandlall said, while adding that examinations of the building have revealed that it is hazardous not only to the occupants but to the persons who frequent it.
“The fact is that the state of affairs cannot continue,” he stressed.
Nandlall yesterday said that the occupants had all been served with notices to remove and have been given varying periods to do so, depending on their length of tenancy as is required by law. He added too that legal proceedings had been filed against all of the occupants and some defended those proceedings and took technical legal objections to the court.
“This should not be a matter for litigation. The building is unsafe. It is in their best interest to vacate,” he said, while adding that “it has no lavatory facilities, no supply of potable water, [and] now no light. It is falling apart. It is sinking. It is infested with termites and it stinks.”
Disputed ownership
But while Nandlall has stated that government plans to use the building to accommodate important institutions connected to the justice sector, its claims to the property have been disputed.
Attorney Gem Sanford, who is a tenant, indicated to Stabroek News that the building was never vested in or acquired by anyone after its owner, the First Federation Life Insurance Company Ltd, was liquidated sometime around 1988.
She said that since Nandlall took office, there has been talk that the building was identified to house courts but she maintained that to this date, it is still owned the First Federation Life Insurance Company Ltd by virtue of Transport No 1132 of 30th June, 1964.
According to Sanford, the First Federation Life Insurance Company Ltd was wound up pursuant to an Order of Court dated November 29, 1988 and the person then holding the substantive position of State Solicitor/Official Receiver was appointed Provisional Liquidator, in accordance with the Companies Act.
The Official Receiver after being appointed, she said, took over the management of the building and began to collect rent from the tenants and rent empty rooms in order to recover money to pay off the disenfranchised policyholders. “It is believed that over the years 1988 to now all or almost all the policyholders were able to recover monies owed to them,” she explained.
According to Sanford, while the Official Receiver continued to collect the rent over the years, no maintenance work in respect of the building was done and some tenants refused to pay rent for years in the light of this situation which others still continued to do so.
Water and electricity were included in the rent up to 1995, she said, while explaining that at that time GPL disconnected the power supply because the Official Receiver had declared that there was no money to pay the bill. Sanford and attorney Birget Corbin, another tenant at the time, joined forces and were able to raise the $96,000 owed, but she said GPL refused to reconnect the power to the building on the grounds that the building had to be re-certified. “The tenants were all advised to freshly wire their offices and apply for individual meters. Most of us did and we signed contracts with GPL for the supply of electricity to our respective offices after each office was certified by the Inspection Office in Kingston,” she said, while adding that maintenance work to the building over the years was done by her with help from other tenants.
In wake of Nandlall’s announcement of government’s plans for the building, Sanford said, sometime last year each tenant received a Notice to Quit from the Public Trustee and earlier this year each received a summons for possession issued through the office of the Public Trustee.
Nandlall, she added, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on two occasions and gave grounds for possession as own use and repairs, among others, while most tenants filed a defence and attorney Saphier Husain argued preliminary points. She explained that most tenants had the same defence—two of which were that the notice sent was bad in law and that the Public Trustee could not require the building for its own use as the building was still in the company’s name. She added that at the next court date Nandlall sent two of his officers to withdraw the matter against all the tenants.
Sanford described the disconnection of the power as “a new strategy” to force the tenants from the building.
She said a few of the tenants responded to the letter by the head of the electrical inspectorate about the faulty wiring and the plans to instruct GPL to disconnect the power regardless of whether they were up to date with payments. She added that they left the building on Friday with electricity in place and learned that GPL disconnected the power connections on Saturday. “This is apparently how he intends to get us out of the building,” she added.
No activity
The clipped electrical wires were noticeable outside the building. Noel Hubbard, who operates the snackette owned by the Imperial College located in the building, told Stabroek News that he was alone at the location when GPL workers came calling for the main door to be opened last Saturday. He said that as he was the only person in the building, he had locked the door and was in the second-floor snackette.
Upon seeing the men, Hubbard said, he retreated into the building and shortly afterwards the men, who had ladders, went to work, cutting the wires which led from the building to utility posts outside. Lines to four posts in all, he noted, were disconnected.
Hubbard, who has been working at the snackette for about two years and said he had never encountered this issue before, pointed out that GPL chose a day when there was no activity to carry out its operation.
While he waited for news as to when the power will be restored, he noted that since no one in the building had electricity, not much work could be done. A Justice of Peace who operated in the building had to relocate to another building nearby with all his equipment, he said.
Over the years there have been reports of illegal connections in the building. In February 2009, GPL found dozens of illegal power connections in the building, including one hooked up to the office of a former power company employee. Several persons were subsequently arrested and charged over the illegal connections. Dindyal had said then that the First Federation building was deemed “totally unsafe”.
