Major disruption at Ayr Station due to dangerous old hotel (from August 2018)

Clayton said:

The council don’t own the unsafe building.

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GusB said:

I hate seeing old buildings being demolished, but when they've been left to deteriorate to the extent that they become completely uneconomic to repair, surely it's time to put it out of its misery. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but that should have happened long before the building was allowed to reach its current state.

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Carntyne said:

The council need to stop messing around and pull it down.

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duffield said:

The council are likely very wary of entering a protracted and expensive legal battle with the overseas owners (who, I seem to have read, are generally uncooperative and may also have a hugely inflated idea of the site's value). Maybe the council just can't afford this?

It would presumably be highly illegal, with possible personal liability for councillors, for them to demolish without going through the courts?

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Grumpy Git said:

Also need to look at foreign ownership. It would not be allowed in a lot of countries.

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greyman42 said:

Foreign ownership of what?

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Southsider said:

Presumably they have enforcement powers.

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Grumpy Git said:

The derelict property in question

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Grumpy Git said:

Which is why the law needs to change.

Also need to look at foreign ownership. It would not be allowed in a lot of countries.

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Nooks and Corners

Private Eye No. 1527 31 July – 13 August 2020

YEARS of neglect by an absentee owner have left one of western Scotland’s most prominent Victorian landmark buildings in a perilous state. Ayr Station hotel, which closed in 2013, now makes for sorry viewing, propped up by scaffolding and clad in PVC sheeting.

Commissioned by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, the hotel, designed by GSWR chief engineer Andrew Galloway and opened in 1886, is now grade-B listed by Historic Environment Scotland. It is a striking example of French renaissance-style architecture, described by writer Michael Pearson in Iron Road to Burns Country as “florid in its four storeys of deep red sandstone”. Galloway, he added, “must have relished the opportunity to let his imagination soar free after a life designing engine sheds”.

As the 74-bedroom hotel deteriorated, South Ayrshire council (SAC) was forced to intervene. It issued a dangerous building notice to Malaysian majority owner, Eng Huat Ung, in 2013; and again in March 2018, after which the hotel was fenced off. Local press recently reported on the escalating cost (more than £500,000 a year) to keep the site safe, split between SAC and the Scottish government.

Problems include falling debris, loose roof slates, unsecure pipework and unstable cast iron features. As the hotel flanks the railway line, this has meant closing the station concourse, with platforms blocked off and long trains barred.

In a structural report commissioned by SAC, consultants from Mott MacDonald estimated repairs could cost almost £10m, and that without intervention areas of the roof would collapse. ”There will be local collapse of areas of suspended floor and masonry falling to ground,” it added, while the clock tower chimney needed urgent attention. Some areas were too unsafe to survey properly.

Ung was given access by SAC to compile his own report, but the council has yet to see this. No one knows his intentions. His stake in the hotel was acquired in 2010. His current business venture, DSS Global Investments, was set up in September 2018, with an address in central London, listed as ”buying and selling of own real estate”. According to Companies House, it is overdue filing its accounts. A previous company, Station Hotel Ayr Holdings, of which Ung was one of three directors, is dormant. Network Rail retains a minority ownership of the hotel, around 16 percent.

Conservationists are calling for compulsory purchase by SAC, with the hotel to be passed to Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, which has expressed an interest in taking it on. “They would consult townsfolk, work out what the town required and see what would be economically viable,” says Esther Clark, of Ayr Station hotel action group.

The council is wary. “Before we could begin to consider a compulsory purchase order, we need to establish whether the existing building can be restored or whether its condition necessitates redevelopment,” it says. “The council would need to be satisfied that it... can secure sufficient funding to purchase the site, pay compensation to the landowners and complete the proposed redevelopment of the building or site in a reasonable timescale.”

SAC is leading a task force, including Transport Scotland, Network Rail and Scotrail, ”to determine longer term options for the building and potential regeneration of the area”. But the council has heard nothing from Ung’s agent since February. With the hotel’s majority owner absent and everyone strapped for cash, how things will work out is anyone’s guess.

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jfollows said:

Private Eye reports on the problem caused by "years of neglect by an absentee owner":

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Gathursty said:

Surely there must be something in British Law that allows the state to remove property from someone who through neglect or their actions causes it to be a danger to life. If someone is deliberately hard to contact, the case should be easier to resolve.

Examples: We take assets from drug dealers including houses they turned into cannabis farms. If a tenant doesn't contest a hearing regarding residence, they usually get evicted immediately.

Why are things so different with foreign owners who have money? That should be an aggravating factor to consider if they are purposely inactive in some attempt to financially gain in the long term when an immediate danger to life is present.

If you left your broken down car on the Motorway with intention of dealing with it in a year, you would almost certainly not get past the first hour of abandonment without the police speaking to you. This hotel situation is so ridiculous.

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d9009alycidon said:

Having followed this for some time I get the impression that nobody wants to take complete ownership of the issue, The property owner seems to be happy to sit back and let everyone else bicker about it and the local authorities and the railway seem to want to pass the buck to each other. It is now over a year since Network Rail announced that the property owner was being pursued for costs due to the disruption to the railway and the council were supposed to be following suit for the expense of making the area around the building safe - wonder how that is getting on! I have heard that the cost of demolition could potentially run into millions of pounds with very limited potential for recovering these losses from commercial or residential development. IMO The Station Hotel is a microcosm of the whole of Ayr Town Centre, totally run down! There are several buildings that really should be demolished and many shops are empty, with more businesses closing all the time

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Gathursty said:

Surely there must be something in British Law that allows the state to remove property from someone who through neglect or their actions causes it to be a danger to life. If someone is deliberately hard to contact, the case should be easier to resolve.

Examples: We take assets from drug dealers including houses they turned into cannabis farms. If a tenant doesn't contest a hearing regarding residence, they usually get evicted immediately.

Why are things so different with foreign owners who have money? That should be an aggravating factor to consider if they are purposely inactive in some attempt to financially gain in the long term when an immediate danger to life is present.

If you left your broken down car on the Motorway with intention of dealing with it in a year, you would almost certainly not get past the first hour of abandonment without the police speaking to you. This hotel situation is so ridiculous.

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thejuggler said:

No such thing as British Law. There is Law of England and Wales and Scottish Law. This is in Scotland. In England and Wales a Local Authority can compulsory purchase property. They can also undertake emergency works and charge the owner for the costs. No idea of the situation in Scotland,

However a large property isn't a car. It can't be moved quickly or cheaply and as soon as a Local Authority take ownership they are then liable for the structure. That's why it isn't something Authorities do very often.

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thejuggler said:

No such thing as British Law. There is Law of England and Wales and Scottish Law. This is in Scotland. In England and Wales a Local Authority can compulsory purchase property. They can also undertake emergency works and charge the owner for the costs. No idea of the situation in Scotland,

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AM9 said:

Would the LA under Scvvots Law be able to claim for whatever costs they incure during repairs and making safe by placing a charge on the property at the Land Registry?

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tspaul26 said:

In theory, yes. However, there are a number of procedural hoops to jump through including the service of various notices.



Since HM Land Registry has no role in Scotland, no!

In theory, the local authority can register a notice of liability for expenses with the Keeper of the Registers, but this is time limited and, ultimately, unless the property is disponed, doesn’t itself realise any cash upfront.

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AM9 said:

OK. I didn't know that HMLR didn't cover all of HM's territory. So is there no overarching registration of Land ownership in Scotland?

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AM9 said:

OK. I didn't know that HMLR didn't cover all of HM's territory. So is there no overarching registration of Land ownership in Scotland?

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ForTheLoveOf said:

I would be surprised if the council didn't have the necessary legal powers to do what is required to rectify the situation. However they obviously don't want to incur liability for repairs etc. through compulsory purchase and extra-jurisdictional enforcement of any Court orders in Malaysia is likely to be "interesting" to say the least.

It's a difficult situation. With a property in the state the hotel currently is in, nobody would ever pay to buy the thing. So ultimately if the owner continues to refuse to pay up, ordering a sale is pointless and the government, whether local or national, will have to step in to pay the costs of repair. No doubt this would effectively the entitle them to take ownership of the property with minimal compensation to pay, but I wouldn't be surprised if if the owner suddenly starts becoming interested if that happens and starts demanding money...

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