Glasgow Housing Association faces court challenges by evicted tenants

Two weeks after Housing Today revealed that a legal oversight by the association could have led to as many as 69 tenants being unlawfully evicted, lawyers in Glasgow have reported a number of approaches from people wanting to raise cases in court.

Three former tenants who believe they were unlawfully evicted have contacted Mike Dailly, a solicitor at Govan Law Centre and the lawyer who first challenged GHA's right to pursue cases started by Glasgow council (HT 6 February, page 7).

Dailly is interviewing the former tenants and will decide whether their claims can be sustained in court.

He said: "If they have been unlawfully evicted they could be eligible for statutory damages in the region of £15,000-20,000.

"The cases have yet to be finalised, but we do expect that we will proceed with some."

Any cases that do go to court are likely to involve tenants whom Glasgow council was in the process of evicting when the stock transfer was completed in March 2003.

When GHA took over the council's 81,000 homes it should have obtained a "minute of assignation" – a document that would have allowed it to inherit the council's legal actions. It could then have continued proceedings against the tenants.

The tenants could be eligible for damages in the region of £15,000-20,000

Mike Dailly, solicitor

However, the minute of assignation was not completed until December 2003, almost 10 months after the stock transfer took place. By that time, GHA had evicted 69 tenants.

The news follows another damaging week for GHA during which it was forced to deny that it intends to make major changes to its business plan after documents relating to a GHA sub-committee meeting in January were leaked.

The leaked papers quoted GHA chief executive Michael Lennon saying: "During 2004, a fundamental review of the business plan will encompass a more radical review of assumptions."

A spokesperson for GHA said: "The business plan for next year will not challenge any of the assumptions upon which the GHA was formed. We will be continuing our second year of operation on the same basis.

"The promises made to tenants who voted for the stock transfer to take place will be kept. There is absolutely no thought whatsoever in moving from the pledges that have been made.