Auctioneer files Sh36m claim on Jacaranda Hotel

Auctioneers are demanding more than Sh36 million from Jacaranda Hotel in what looks set to compound the financial woes of Sh2.1 billion investment after the High Court stopped its sale via public auction last week.

PM Gachie trading as (T/A) Regent Auctioneers has filed a bill of costs of Sh36,881,124 against Jacaranda Hotel Limited of the business empire of the late tycoon Njenga Karume.

Lawyer Titus Koceyo for the auctioneers lodged a bill of costs following an order by Justice Wilfrida Okwany that its costs be taxed by the deputy registrar of the superior court.

Although the judge stopped the sale of the hotel, it was given a window of 90 days to redeem the loan. The parties agreed in a consent filed before Justice Okwany that if the hotel defaults in payments, the bank “will be at liberty to the sell the suit property through public auction.”

The hotel was salvaged from the auctioneer’s hammer on January 21 after the recording of consent by the parties.

The sale of Jacaranda Hotel in Westlands, Nairobi, had been scheduled for January 22 over an outstanding bank loan.

But on January 21, the lender, Guaranty Trust Bank (Kenya) Limited signed consent with Jacaranda Hotel before Justice Okwany on how to settle the outstanding loan. Following the consent, the lender recalled the instructions it had given to Regent about the sale.

“We hereby recall our instructions and request that you do not proceed with the said auction. File bill of costs before the deputy registrar of the High Court for taxation,” the bank told Regent Auctioneers.

The registrar will now determine the amount payable to the auctioneers.