Auckland brothel One33 reopens following rent dispute and attempted eviction

One33 Brothel has re-opened after a dispute with the tenant and the landlord closed the premises over the past week. Photo / Supplied

The Auckland brothel at the centre of a rent row has reopened two days after the director refused to leave the property despite an attempted eviction.

Director Aartisha Kumar camped inside the foyer of the building on 133 Vincent St on Monday when landlord and former Auckland District Law Society president Tony Bouchier’s security turned up to take control of the premises.

She described it as a wrongful eviction issue that had been resolved.

She said she told Bouchier to get a court order.

Police confirmed they attended an incident at One33 in the city centre on Wednesday night, but said they would be taking no further action as it was up to those involved to sort the matter out.

A landlord company owned by Bouchier claimed the brothel owes it $176,993 in unpaid rent and insurance costs.

One33 brothel operator Aartisha Kumar occupied the premises in a rent row with her landlord.

Kumar denied this, claiming Bouchier reneged on a verbal promise to waive some of the unpaid rent.

She said Bouchier would need to go to arbitration to reclaim the money he believed he was owed.

“Arbitration is enforceable. That is basically what I have been saying to him.”

Kumar claimed Bouchier could not come in and claim possession while a legal occupant was in the building.

She said some of her staff have come back to work while others wanted to wait for the affair to blow over.

“My staff are pretty grateful they still have a job but everyone is still on edge,” she said.

Tony Bouchier refused to comment to the Herald.

One33 had been a tenant at the Vincent St building for 13 years, where it once promised luxurious rooms with double spas for customers keen to spend time with its “sexy ladies”.

A company owned by Bouchier called De Richaumont Investments had acted as landlord.

It claimed in a legal letter sent to the brothel this month that One33 had arbitrarily decided to stop paying rent during the Covid pandemic.

One33 had also failed to insure the building as was required in the brothel’s rental contract, De Richaumont Investments claimed.

Bouchier told media outlet BusinessDesk earlier this week he had tried to negotiate rent repayments.

One33 Brothel has re-opened after a dispute with the tenant and the landlord closed the premises over the past week. Photo / Supplied

“I’ve got a record of probably about six emails where I have emailed saying, ‘Let’s negotiate this’: No response,” he said.

De Richaumont Investments’ lawyers consequently said they would forgo $61,311 in unpaid rent and $117,648 in costs related to the building being uninsured since 2020, if One33′s team signed a Deed of Surrender ending the lease.

But One33 claimed it had not been able to access the building for 210 days during the Covid pandemic, bringing the business to its knees.

It claimed it had repaid a fair proportion of the unpaid rent and that Bouchier initially agreed to allow them to repay about 50% of the unpaid rent before reneging on the deal - a claim the landlord’s lawyers denied.