Oistins stall owner evicted

A veteran stall owner who operated at Oistins Bay Garden in Christ Church for nearly three decades is seeking legal advice after being evicted from her stall, which the National Conservation Commission (NCC) has taken possession of amid reports she was subletting the space.

Michelle King, 59, who ran Crystal’s Bar & Grill for 29 years, told the Saturday Sun the NCC was also refusing to accept a cheque for $20 000 in arrears she owed but was willing to pay.

She said her troubles began last month when she returned to Barbados from a ten-day trip overseas and the man she had allowed to use her stall – described as “like family” – refused to hand it back.

“I leave fish, I leave chips, I leave stock in the shop, drinks and everything. He was supposed to give Pat $2 000,” King said. “He turned and tell me he ain’t do good, go from ’round de place. I say, ‘How you mean go from round de place?’ He turn and tell me don’t come back here. Don’t come back around the shop? It is my shop, so how you mean don’t come back?”

Went to police

Feeling threatened, King said she went to the police, who began dealing with the matter.

However, she said a member of the Oistins Bay Garden Association intervened and told officers to “shut the shop. This is a NCC matter”.

“How it get a NCC matter when the police come to make the boy move out the shop and let me get back my shop?” King asked. “So that is how it went bad from there.”

She said the police locked the stall and then handed the keys over to the NCC.

“So now the NCC is using the outstanding rent to put me out when they got people down there that owe more money than me,” she charged, adding that subletting was also rampant in the Bay Garden.

King said she subsequently met with NCC officials, who, she added, were only interested in why the man had been operating her stall.

“This stall is my stall,” King stressed. She said she lost thousands of dollars worth of appliances, furniture, food items and drinks which were inside the stall when it was locked.

“I had over 100 chairs and tables. They were put outside and I understand the paros took them up and sold them. All I got back was 35 chairs. All of my furniture gone. All of my equipment. They even put my new stove outside of the stall. I had fish, shrimp, chicken – a lot of stock – and all gone,” she said.

On the arrears, King explained that she and other vendors had been taken to court over outstanding monies and she had been paying off about $10 000. She said she did not realise she was also accumulating arrears on her current rent until she went to the NCC about the incident and was informed she owed $20 000.

“I am willing to clear it off but they refusing to take it because they want the stall. I went to my lawyer [yesterday] morning and my lawyer said she don’t see no reason why they can’t take the cheque to clear off the rent since I have been there for 29 years,” King said.

When contacted, Kemar Harris, president of the Oistins Bay Gardens Association, said the group was not aware that any stall owner had been evicted and no one had come to them for assistance.

An officer of the NCC said the commission was only made aware of the matter through the police, and was informed that King had sublet the stall for $2 000 a month while owing the NCC $20 000, representing rent on her stall at $850 a month. (MB)

The post Oistins stall owner evicted appeared first on nationnews.com.