GHA 'may have unlawfully evicted up to 69 tenants'

A legal oversight by Glasgow Housing Association may have led to as many as 69 tenants being unlawfully evicted.

One eviction has already successfully been challenged because GHA had failed to complete all the paperwork needed for it to continue legal actions started by Glasgow council before the transfer of 81,000 homes to GHA in March 2003.

A vital document called the minute of assignation was not completed until December, almost 10 months after the transfer.

Lawyers with experience of the Scottish transfer process said it was standard to complete the minute of assignation within a month of transfer.

GHA's oversight could delay its attempts to claw back some of the £12m rent it is owed – £7.5m of which it inherited from the council.

A spokesman for GHA said: "This particular issue was the result of an omission in the transfer documentation, for which we accept full responsibility.

"GHA moved to rectify the situation immediately it was recognised."

He added: "Regardless of any loophole, those tenants involved owed money to GHA.

"That fact does not change and [the association] can still pursue these tenants for payment."

Regardless of any loophole, those tenants owed money to Glasgow Housing Association. That fact does not change

GHA spokesman

Mike Dailly, a solicitor at the Govan Law Centre, was the first to challenge the housing association's right to pursue cases begun by the council, on behalf of a client. After receiving the challenge, GHA chose not to proceed with the eviction.

He said: "GHA may have evicted people on the back of decrees that it shouldn't have had."

Dailly believes more of the 69 tenants evicted by GHA during the 10 months since transfer may be able to overturn the rulings.

He said he hoped to spread the word to other lawyers in the city.

"I intend to strike out as many cases as possible, and am looking to discuss the ability to do so with other Glasgow law firms," he said.

GHA would have difficulty defending such cases if they were brought, but it could seek to begin proceedings for a new eviction order in its own name.

The news will come as a serious embarrassment to GHA, which had to survive a number of legal challenges before completing the transfer (HT 26 September 2002, page 9).