Romanian seaside hostel dismantled as land owner and protest-supporter investor enter litigation

The Pura Vida Beach Hostel in Vama Veche, owned by the Pura Vida Hostels Chain, is being dismantled as the land owner and the hostel investor litigate over the rights to use the space, local daily Adevarul reports. Tudor Maxim, the founder of Pura Vida, says the chain has a lease contract for the building and the land until 2019. Maxim is one of those who offered free accommodation to people coming from other cities to Bucharest to protest against the revoked ordinance OUG 13, which attempted to change the Criminal Law, in February. The building and the land are owned by Valentin Vladescu, a former Romanian Social Democracy Party (PSD) mayor of Limanu, the Constanta commune that encompasses the Vama Veche village. He rented the space to another local investor, who plans to develop another business there, Adevarul writes. “We have a rent contract beginning 2013 and up until December 31, 2019 for the building. For the surrounding land, which is leased from the city hall, Vladescu committed to getting all functioning permits. We paid rent worth EUR 68,000 in four years and invested other tens of thousands of euros. The owner closed another contract over ours, with a different, local firm and on Monday started to destroy our work. They broke the bar, destroyed our storage space, took our trailer. We are not the first ones to have this happen. These are trespassing and vandalism acts, and the police doesn’t want to come and record anything because both of them are locals,” Maxim said, quoted by Adevarul. The owner of the place told Adevarul that he quit politics and sees no connection between the ruling party and the recent actions. He said he filed a complaint against Maxim for not paying several water and electricity bills, which he had to pay himself. He also argued he had every right to evict his tenant. In his turn, Maxim said he paid the bills, which he can prove with the receipts, and that he would go to court to recover the damages. Pura Vida Hostels is a chain of youth hostels and tours. It owns the Little Bucharest Bar & Hostel and the Pura Vida Sky Bar & Hostel in the capital, the Pura Vida Beach Hostel in Vama Veche, the Dor De Bucovina guesthouse in Campulung Moldovenesc, the Zen Hostel by Pura Vida in Cluj-Napoca, and the Centrum House Hostel by Pura Vida in Brasov. Solidarity against the Government: Romanians offer free car rides, accommodation for protesters (Photo source: www.puravidahostels.ro)