Police confirmed they attended an incident at One33 inthe city centre on Wednesday night, but said they would be taking no further action as it was up to those involved to sort the matter out.
Now the brothel madam’s mother says she fears for her daughter’s “fragile” state, after her daughter spent days camping at the building in the cold and with limited access to food.
“I am concerned that my daughter has not eaten for four days, has no power to stay warm,” Jean Kumar said.
“She is sounding very fragile. She has send [sic] me texts which no mother would want to read.”
She had earlier refused to leave the building at 133 Vincent St on Monday when security turned to take control of the premises, choosing to instead camp in the foyer in protest.
Then on Wednesday night, Kumar said she flagged down a passing police car and asked the officers to intervene.
During the conversation with police and security, Kumar said she dashed from the foyer into the building proper where she shut the doors on the security guards.
She said she told the security guards she “would not be letting them in, and if they were going to get in, they needed to get a court order”.
One33 brothel at 133 Vincent St is closed in a rental dispute with its landlord.
She claimed police later issued trespass notices to the security and to landlord Bouchier.
The Herald has not been able to verify whether trespass notices were issued and has sought comment from Bouchier.
A police spokeswoman said officers attended an incident at the brothel on Wednesday.
“Police have spoken with those at the address on a number of occasions and this has now been assessed as a civil matter,” she said.
“We have advised those involved to follow the Tenancy Act to resolve the dispute and, at this stage, no further police action is required.”
One33 had been a tenant at the Vincent St building for 13 years, where it once promised luxurious rooms with double spas for customers keen to spend time with its “sexy ladies”.
A company owned by Bouchier called De Richaumont Investments had acted as landlord.
It claimed in a legal letter sent to the brothel this month that One33 had arbitrarily decided to stop paying rent during the Covid pandemic.
One33 had also failed to insure the building as was required in the brothel’s rental contract, De Richaumont Investments claimed.
Bouchier told media outlet BusinessDesk earlier this week he had tried to negotiate rent repayments.
“I’ve got a record of probably about six emails where I have emailed saying, ‘Let’s negotiate this’: No response,” he said.
One33 brothel operator Aartisha Kumar is occupying the premises in a rent row with her landlord.
De Richaumont Investments’ lawyers consequently said they would forgo $61,311 in unpaid rent and $117,648 in costs related to the building being uninsured since 2020, if One33′s team signed a Deed of Surrender ending the lease.
But One33 claimed it had not been able to access the building for 210 days during the Covid pandemic, bringing the business to its knees.
It claimed it had repaid a fair proportion of the unpaid rent and that Bouchier initially agreed to allow them to repay about 50% of the unpaid rent before reneging on the deal - a claim the landlord’s lawyers denied.
Kumar, meanwhile, hopes to force the landlord to go to arbitration or court over what she believes was an unfair cancellation of the lease.
And having been able to temporarily regain control of the building without security there, she said she’s been able to reconnect the power to have a shower and freely order food.
“Best Macca’s I have had in a while,” she said while adding that she remains “anxious, relieved and tired”.
