PE hotel owners lose bid to operate wellness spa

THE luxury Georgiou Boutique Hotel and Spa in Port Elizabeth has lost yet another bruising court battle with Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and will have to close its wellness spa.

Yvette Georgiou failed in her appeal to a full bench of the Grahamstown High Court against a judgment in terms of which she and her husband Phillip were interdicted from operating a health spa at their luxury Kragga Kamma home.

The Georgious have battled the metro in and out of court for their right to run the hotel and spa for close on a decade. Yvette has defiantly operated the spa for over six years in the face of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro’s refusal to let her do so and, later an interdict prohibiting her from doing so.

She first applied in 2009 to use her home, which is zoned as residential, as a guesthouse and spa. When the metro inspected the premises they found she was already operating both without permission.

Despite this, the metro gave her special consent to operate as a guesthouse, but only on condition they stop operating the illegal spa and that only four guest suites were permitted.

Despite being put to terms on several occasions she continued to operate both. The Georgiou family also expanded the premises.

The metro finally successfully applied to the Port Elizabeth High Court to order them to demolish some of the extensions for which there were no building plans.

This was followed by Judge Mandela Makaula’s interdict prohibiting them from running a spa.

Despite the fact that the metro had explicitly refused her consent to operate the spa and had made their consent to her operating the guesthouse subject to her closing the spa, Georgiou claimed in court papers she could lawfully do both.

She relied on a little-known regulation in the municipality’s Zoning Scheme Regulations in terms of which it is permissible for a resident to practice an occupation from their home “at the pleasure of the Council” under certain conditions. She said she therefore had implicit consent.

It was argued that in terms of this regulation she could operate any business from home without notice or application to the metro.

But a full bench of the Grahamstown High Court rejected this.

Judge Clive Plasket, with judges Judith Roberson and Murray Lowe agreeing, said her reliance on this regulation was an afterthought.

The court dismissed her appeal and ordered her to pay the costs.

The Georgiou couple were not available for comment.