A Belfast motel has run into trouble this summer over the condition of one of its rooms and the length of time guests are staying there.
The room at the Gull Motel on Route 1 was condemned in June because it violated local health and safety codes, including having rotting floors and carpeting that was soiled by pets that belonged to previous renters.
The motel also lost its state lodging license last month because it was only offering long-term rentals, rather than the short stays more traditionally associated with such establishments.
Despite losing its lodging license, the Gull Motel is still legally allowed to offer long-term rentals to guests, according to state health officials. At least two people appear to be staying there currently, though one of them does not think she has been charged any rent.
Without its lodging license, the motel is not subject to state health inspections. It also currently lacks some of the basic services associated with motels, including a staffed front office, or the free breakfast that’s still advertised on its website.
A “no vacancy” sign was posted outside the motel this week, and a room that might have once served as an office was filled with clutter, trash and cleaning supplies.
The motel’s owner, Daniel Wing, was not there on Wednesday or Thursday afternoons, and he did not respond to a request for comment. But a man who identified himself as an employee of Wing’s — and gave his name as just Tony — told a reporter who was there on Thursday to leave.
Room 5, the one that was condemned by the city, had a yellow notice on its door saying that it was “unsafe” and that occupancy was “prohibited until required repairs” were permitted and inspected. It indicated that the room lacked electricity, heat, and water, and had structural damage.
In an interview, Belfast Code Enforcement Officer Steve Wilson said previous tenants of the room had removed smoke alarms and left it a mess, with urine and feces from multiple dogs and cats in the carpet.
“Once they pulled up the carpet, they found the flooring was soft and rotted in places,” Wilson said. “They found a hump in the floor that’s still there, that’s part of what they want to assess; what’s causing that hump in the edge of the floor. So they’re going to remove the flooring to find out.”
It’s not the only room with issues at the Gull Motel.
One of the motel’s residents, 89-year-old Jean Hurley, said she has been staying there for about two months, after a social worker helped her to move there from her home in Monroe. To the best of her knowledge, Hurley said that she has not been charged rent.
But Hurley said she’s had trouble getting the management of the building to fix the toilet in her room, which floods the bathroom when she tries to flush it. During a visit by a reporter, the floor of the bathroom was wet and appeared to have human waste on it.
“I put Depends on the floor to catch whatever flows over from the toilet,” Hurley said.
Another regulatory problem facing the Gull Motel came last month, on July 9, when an official from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention informed Wing that the motel was no longer meeting the terms of its state lodging license. That’s because the motel was only offering stays longer than six months, according to a copy of the agency’s letter. As a result, the license was terminated.
In an email to the BDN, Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said that establishments can choose to offer long-term rentals of more than 183 days per year, but if that’s the case, then they can no longer be licensed as lodging establishments under the Maine CDC’s health inspection program.
Wing is now in the process of trying to get his license back, according to Wilson.
