Boss who faces eviction slams council for lack of compassion Ballroom business ran up £400,000 arrears as triple family tragedy struck
THE boss of one of Birmingham’s most iconic nightspots has slated council chiefs for dismissing three deaths in his family as mere “mishaps” as he battles eviction.
Peter Sangha, who will be kicked out of Edgbaston’s Tower Ballroom on October 31 due to rent arrears, admits taking his “eye off the ball” after 21-year-old son Rajan took his own life two years ago.
His 66-year-old mother, Daljit, then died of a heart attack two weeks later. Six months later his father, Surinder, succumbed to coronary disease.
The 45-year-old businessman has now offered to pay £250,000 of the £400,000 arrears he owes and to buy the building outright.
But Birmingham refuses to budge until amount.
The council said it has tried to resolve the situation and held talks with the businessman – and there is still opportunity for Mr Sangha to settle the debt.
But he has now accused the authority of making light of the tragedies that have blighted his life recently.
“What I have gone through is unimaginable,” he said. “Try losing your son, mother and father – and then put it into words.
“To refer to that as a ‘mishap’ lacking compassion. It is an insult.”
The council letter to his solicitor, dated June 20, 2017, states: “We have looked at the contents of this email and can confirm that although the council is sympathetic towards your client’s personal mishaps, this has no bearing on your client’s breaches under the terms of his lease.”
The father-of-seven, from the Worcestershire village of Pedmore, took on the ballroom lease nine years ago with the intention of turning the venue, besides Edgbaston Reservoir, into a major Asian wedding venue.
He said he £200,000 rent has debt City Council it gets the full paid off already, is the and agreed a £107,000-a-year lease. The rates are £50,000 per annum.
And he said that he forked out £800,000 on a complete refurbishment od the ballroom.
“They (the council) were glad to have a tenant,” he said. “Because there were a lot of complaints about drugs and prostitution. If I stripped out the fixtures and fittings it would be a shed again. The council seems happy to let that happen.
“I went for the niche market of Asian weddings and we’ve never had any cases of disorder.”
His tenure at The Tower has not been trouble-free however. Complaints about parking and noise led to legal action, and his closing time was drastically reduced from 6am to 10.15pm. Rent was also cranked up by £30,000 to £137,000.
In September 2016, the Tower Ballroom won back its licence following an appeal. Council licensing chiefs had revoked the Tower’s licence after ruling that the venue, a dance hall since the 1920s, could not “co-exist” with residents because of late-night noise.
But the ballroom boss admits letting an already precarious financial position descend into chaos as he struggled to come to terms with the loss of loved ones.
He admits burying his head in the sand and leaving official letters unopened.
He was issued with a Possession Order on October 2 this year.
Now back at the business helm, he has offered to pay £250,000 of the debt – and purchase the premises for £1.5 million.
“I think that is fair,” he said. “And, to be honest, it is all I can afford to give. They have increased my rent, yet reduced my hours of business by 50 per cent, making it almost impossible to pay.”
The Tower Ballroom had been earmarked for demolition just a decade ago, when developers planned to build 90 homes on the site – but protests by residents saw the proposals scrapped.
T h e building was empty from 2005 but was reopened to huge fanfare in 2008. Peter Sangha bought it in 2010. A CITY council spokesman said: “We have been actively engaged in dialogue with the tenant of the Tower Ballroom since the summer of 2016 in relation to the issue of non-payment of rent. “Officers met with Mr Sangha in person at the venue in October 2016, in an effort to structure a formal payment plan and avoid the necessity for legal action. “Mr Sangha was given until Christmas 2016, to make a substantial payment and to propose a formal plan to make payment of the remaining sums owed. No payments were forthcoming and following further correspondence, notice was served on the tenant company in April 2017, advising that the non-payment of rent and business rates were breaches of the lease terms. “Extensions of time were granted to Mr Sangha to make payment before formal possession proceedings were commenced. “The court granted a possession order in the council’s favour on October 2, 2017, clearly outlining the sums which the tenant needs to pay before October 31, 2017, if he wishes to remain in occupation. “A final court date is scheduled for mid-November. In terms of the letter to Mr Sangha, the council acknowledges the use of language may have caused concern and will bear this in mind when producing any similar correspondence in future. As the court proceedings are ongoing, the city council does not wish to comment further on this case at present.”