Uproar Over Vive Closure
Hotel Staff Left Unpaid, Guests Barred Access
HUGH SULLIVAN
The Vive Hotel at 44 Havelock Road in Hastings Town Centre closed last month after two companies involved in its management – Havelock Property Limited and Havelock 1 Limited – were declared insolvent and put into administration. Sole director and shareholder of both, Sean Cochrane, appears to have dissociated himself after firing up to 15 hotel staff with their last month’s wages unpaid. The administrators have subsequently installed security staff to bar guests from accessing rooms they had booked and paid for.
As well as former staff and prospective guests being out of pocket, the current losers from the business collapse are 97 leasehold owners of the building. As explained on page 4 overleaf (Qui Vive: the Model for a Designer Hotel), the cost of its refurbishment was covered by selling all or virtually all of the 97 studio units to “investors” on individual 109-year leases. The units were sold at prices of between £80,000 and £120,000 each on the basis that on completion the leasehold buyers would enter into an agreement with one of Cochrane’s companies to market and manage as student accommodation or holiday lets. The income was either to be shared under a revenue agreement or released to the company in return for an assured rent.
However, there have been major conflicts between Cochrane and these leasehold owners from early in their relationships, over aspects of the sale agreements, and disputes over service charges and the accounting of the income.
It is alleged by the latter that the refurbishment of the building was never given building regulation final certification, and that no valid practical completion certificates have been issued. Building standards, including fire safety, could be potentially compromised. Furthermore, hotel occupancy rates fell far below the optimistic predictions of the original sales pitch, so that the owners found themselves receiving low returns
Simmering discontent boiled over in December 2024 when the owners were each served with an £8,000 demand, claimed in respect of service charges for the management of the building. It was not backed by any certified accounts, and most refused to pay it. Additionally, rents believed to be due to owners were not paid over, but retained to cover the management company’s costs.
The owners started – at first individually, then in increasing collectivity – to engage a rival letting agency, My Property Host, to organise their own lettings outside the hotel remit. The management of the common parts of the building remained the responsibility of Cochrane’s companies, though with sharply reduced revenue to cover the costs.
The owners then resolved to form their own management company to take over the building under leaseholders’ ‘right to manage’ procedures.
On about 28 April, Cochrane summoned the remaining hotel staff – around 15 housekeepers, receptionists and maintenance personnel–to a meeting, and told them that their company employer had run out of money: their employment was at an end, and their month’s wages, due the following day, could not be paid. They would be given a ‘code’ that would enable them in due course to recover from the government’s Insolvency Service what they were owed. However, one of these employees says that he and his former work colleagues are still waiting, more than one month later, for the papers that would be needed to put this claim into effect.
“I am owed around £2,300 pay for April”, said Mohammad Eqbal, an Afghan refugee who had been working for Cochrane as a housekeeper for the last two years. “Others have similar debts. It is very painful. They cheated us. They didn’t give us any notice, so none of us had the opportunity to find other work … I have been looking, but so far haven’t found anything”.
THREAT TO ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
A few days later, Cochrane wrote to all the owners warning them that an electricity bill of £130,000 was owed. Unless they paid it collectively with immediate effect, the electricity for the building would be cut off, and all rooms would have to be vacated for health and safety reasons. Although Vive had by then ceased to take bookings, many of the rooms were occupied by short term guests booked by My Property Host through Booking.com or in some cases by assured shorthold tenants. The owners, whose alternative management company, 44 Havelock Road RTM Company, was incorporated on 14 May, protested that Cochrane’s threat of eviction was illegal.
On 15 and 16 May Ian Goodhew and Abigail Shearing of ‘business recovery’ firm Voscap were formally appointed as administrators. Their first step was to direct local security firm Continental Security Services to take over the communal parts of the building, including front door access, and to bar entry by any tenants or guests.
It was swiftly recognised that eviction or harassment of residential tenants without court sanction would be a criminal offence, and those occupiers who could show they had their own entry keys were then allowed to continue to access their rooms. However, guests who arrived on fresh bookings were denied entry. Over the bank holiday weekend of 24-26 May, a succession of would-be holidaymakers wheeling suitcases down from the station were turned away by reference to notices posted on the glass entrance door giving (initially false, later corrected) email addresses for contact with the administrators Voscap.
By the following week the booking system through Booking.com had been withdrawn and all future bookings cancelled, since Voscap continued to deny access to any new guests.
The owners have pleaded subsequently with Voscap to allow letting of their rooms to resume through My Property Host without intervention while all disputes over service charges and letting arrangements are negotiated or, if necessary, resolved by legal process. At the time of going to press, these pleas have apparently fallen on deaf ears.
The administrator Ian Goodhew has said that the action Voscap have taken is “to protect the creditors of the companies.” He was not willing to comment further. Sean Cochrane was also approached for comments but has not responded.
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Small fry feeding off smaller fry get eaten by big fry. Qui bono? Who benefits? Follow the money folks.
I have been under the rock. What happened to the University of Brighton? What did they pull out of Hastings?
channels. We are challenging the Administrator’s remit. We are actively seeking to take over management of the building so that it can once again operate responsibly, transparently, and in line with the planning/building regulations permissions and community expectations that accompanied its development. The people affected by this are not just investors — they are students, local workers, short-term visitors, and residents who call this building their home. Hastings deserves better. Vive deserves better. We are fighting to keep this welcomed building and facility a vibrant part of the local town.
If you require further information, comments, or would like to speak with someone directly, please don’t hesitate to contact:
Linda Howes
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07929 714562
Very excellent and detailed article. It was a long shot from the start to think that awful biulding could operate as student halls let alone a hotel. The reviews were awful, and running a low end bottom rung hotel is a specialist operation which cochrane did not have experience in. Many hotels in central hastings have failed such as queens hotel, and the chatsworth. These are sea front locations and to compete with no parking in off location was always a wierd idea and reviews tanked from the start. Thanks for great article