HAMPTON, Va. — Guests at the Buckroe Motel in Hampton say they were asked to leave on short notice Thursday.
The motel owner says they are closing to address violations the city told them to fix. Some of the guests say they are frustrated and don’t know where they’ll go.
"They tried to tell me today that I was leaving," Amanda McCoy, who's been staying at Buckroe Motel for a month, said. "And I said you’ll have me until Wednesday because that's what I paid for."
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"I’ve paid $700 and haven’t even been here a whole week and they are trying to make me get out now or tomorrow," Thomas Eldridge, another motel guest, said. "All I’m asking is if I can at least get refunded for the day I’ve haven’t stayed here. I’m literally going to be homeless."
The owner of the Buckroe Motel declined to do an interview, but News 3's Leondra Head spoke her over the phone.
She denied the motel guests claims that they were asked to leave this week. Over the phone, the owner said that guests are allowed to stay in the motel for the days they’ve paid for, but they cannot renew their stay.
The owner who only wanted to be identified as Rachel says she's not sure how long the motel will be closed to complete renovations and address city violations.
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She declined to say what those violations were.
A spokesperson with the city of Hampton said the motel needed to have parking lot repairs and fix exposed wood and the air conditioning units.
Tracy Hill told News 3 about the conditions at the motel.
"This place, the Buckroe Motel, received a lot of code violations and yesterday workers showed up to clean all the air conditioners and today they came to finish that," Hill said.
Hill also lives at the motel.
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"They said they were putting everyone out tomorrow and I’ve been here nine months," she said. "Some of these people have just paid $700 for two weeks."
"You can tell by the rooms that there’s violations," McCoy said. "The AC unit, you can see the outside of it from the inside."
The city says these issues didn’t warrant the building to be shut down. The motel’s owner says they decided to close on their own.
