Who owns Somani Hotels? Who is director Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani - as bid to appeal against Epping asylum seeker hotel ruling heard in court

Last week, Mr Justice Eyre granted an interim injunction to Epping Forest District Council, stopping the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, from using the Essex hotel to accommodate asylum seekers beyond September 12. The authority asked for an injunction to be granted after the hotel became the focal point of several protests and counter-protests in recent weeks.

The Home Office and Somani Hotels will both seek to challenge the ruling at a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with the department also in a bid to appeal against Mr Justice Eyre’s decision not to let it intervene in the case. The hearing before Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb has started at 10am.

Lawyers for Somani Hotels said that the hotel previously housed asylum seekers from May 2020 to March 2021, from October 2022 to April 2024, and since April 2025, and that the council had never previously sought to take action against it. Shortly before judgment was handed down on August 19, the Home Office asked to intervene in the case.

Edward Brown KC, for the department, said that the injunction would “substantially impact on the Home Secretary’s statutory duties” to asylum seekers and added that the move “causes particular acute difficulties at the present date”. Mr Justice Eyre said that it was “not necessary” for the Home Office to be involved in the case, stating that it would cause the “loss of yet further court time”.

In his ruling, the judge stated that the council had not “definitively established” that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules, but said that the company had “sidestepped public scrutiny and explanation” by housing asylum seekers at the site without planning permission. He continued that “the strength of the claimant’s case is such that it weighs in favour” of granting the injunction.

Following the ruling, several councils publicly announced their intention to seek legal advice as to whether they could achieve a similar injunction for hotels in their areas. Somani Hotels is a family-run firm directed by Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani and Nilufa Hassan Somani.

Registered in 2000, it is classed as a micro-entity with a turnover under £632,000. According to reports online Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani was born in 1961 and has held various roles, including director and secretary, in multiple companies.

Listed below are the hotels Somani Hotels owns in the UK.

• The Bell Hotel, Epping
• Aubrey Park Hotel — near St Albans, Hertfordshire
• One Mill Street — Luton, Bedfordshire