The owners of OYO Hotel in Bradford have filed an appeal to the order shutting the facility down and stripping it of its conditional rooming house license.
Mayor Tom Riel explained the order, by health director John Peterson, had been served on the OYO on Oct. 24, and “owner Mr. (Ashok) Bhatt had 10 days from the receipt to file an appeal.”
He filed an appeal last week, the mayor said. From there, the city was to set a hearing within 10 days to consider that appeal. However, “Mr. Bhatt asked for a continuance. We will try to set up a time in the next few weeks that works for everyone.”
Riel added that while the hearing is pending, the city’s health department is not taking action against the facility for housing tenants while it doesn’t have a rooming license.
“He had a conditional rooming house license since last fall,” Riel said, referring to the health department’s actions in 2023 in an effort to get health and safety violations at the OYO corrected. Peterson had issued a conditional license at that time.
“The original list of what needed to be done was never done in its entirety,” the mayor continued. When the health department order was issued last month, it stripped the conditional rooming house license from last year, ordering the facility to close. However, there are still people living in the building.
“We’ve heard of several different organizations making an effort to get people out of there,” Riel said, “the housing authority and some other, private non-profits.”
The mayor continued, explaining, “The city’s standpoint is we’re waiting to hear his appeal.”
The OYO doesn’t have a license, and “should not be renting rooms out. The city of Bradford is not enforcing it at this time, we’re waiting to hear his appeal,” Riel reiterated.
The appeal will be heard by Peterson, as was the appeal filed in 2023. “He is the one who issued the license and the one who revoked it,” the mayor said.
At last report, there were approximately 40 people living in the building.
After an inspection last month, health officers noted poor conditions at the facility, including infestations by roaches and bedbugs, rooms lacking heat or with insufficient heat, exposed wiring, deterioration of the roof, emergency doors remaining locked and multiple other health and safety violations. Most of the violations were uncorrected from one year earlier, when the health department ordered the conditional license on the facility.
