CASAN­DRA THOMP­SON�FORBES

The NIB Mall Ten­ants As­so­ci­a­tion is de­scrib­ing re­cent ac­tions tak­en by the land­lord, the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board, as "un­ac­cept­able and dis­re­spect­ful."Yes­ter­day 33 of the 40 ten­ants met at the 211 Cen­tre at Sig­nal Hill to dis­cuss op­tions avail­able to them af­ter they were is­sued evic­tion no­tices.

Speak­ing to the me­dia fol­low­ing the meet­ing, chair­man of the Scar­bor­ough NIB Mall As­so­ci­a­tion, Ger­ald Mac Far­lane, said all the ten­ants on the com­pound in­clud­ing First Cit­i­zens bank were is­sued evic­tion no­tices dat­ed March 16, 2013 and were giv­en a dead­line of April 30, 2013 to va­cate the premis­es.If they refuse to com­ply, they face le­gal ac­tion.

Mac Far­lane said while the group agreed that the mall need­ed a facelift, no rea­son was giv­en for the high­hand­ed ap­proach as there was no pri­or con­sul­ta­tion with the ten­ants."The mem­bers felt the ac­tion of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board to­wards the mall ten­ants in Scar­borugh was dis­re­spect­ful, un­pro­fes­sion­al and reck­less.

"We feel as a land­lord and a cor­po­rate one with the im­age of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board deal­ing with their ten­ants in Scar­bor­ough in such as man­ner is high­ly un­ac­cept­able so we are chal­leng­ing this mat­ter."Imag­ine this ac­tion was tak­en with­out any con­sul­ta­tion with any of the ten­ants in the mall," he said.

Mac Far­lane said the NIB Mall in Scar­bor­ough un­der­went ma­jor re­pairs be­tween ten and 15 years ago fol­low­ing an earth­quake in To­ba­go, but as it stood now, on­ly mi­nor work was need­ed.He said a lack of rou­tine main­te­nance caused sev­er­al prob­lems but the ten­ants would not be mov­ing out.

"Give the mall a good pow­er wash­ing and a good paint­ing, seal it and paint it and there is the ma­jor work to do. There may be some small leaks get­ting in­to peo­ple's busi­ness­es and so on and that can be dealt with. You do not need to evict peo­ple for that," Mac Far­lane said.

"There is a prob­lem with the com­pound. It is very un­sta­ble. There are holes that need to be cov­ered prop­er­ly; there are some smooth ar­eas; there is poor drainage that is com­ing from the li­brary con­struc­tion that is set­tling on the mall com­pound that needs to be dealt with."All these things can be done but the po­si­tion of the ten­ants, we will not be mov­ing," he said.

Mac­Far­lane added that many at­tempts were made to meet with the mall Man­ag­er There­sa Tate, but they were fu­tile.He said they in­tend­ed to meet with Chief Sec­re­tary of the THA Orville Lon­don and se­nior ex­ec­u­tives of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board next week, as they be­lieved they were be­ing tak­en ad­van­tage of.Some of the ten­ants at the Scar­bor­ough NIB Mall have been oc­cu­py­ing their spaces for as long as 30 years.