We believe this approach could significantly reduce the number of tenants evicted due to rent arrears in the social rented sector. A PAR has been suggested in a recent Scottish Government consulation paper. Such an approach would require all social landlords to deal with the problem of arrears effectively at an earlier stage. It would also help ensure that court action was only raised as a last resort.

GLC believes the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 could be amended to ensure that compliance with a PAR prior to raising an eviction action was necessary in order to ensure that proceedings were competent in the same way that service of a valid notice of proceedings is required at present. Failure on a social landlord’s part to comply with the PAR would therefore be a defence to the action on competency grounds.

GLC believes it is important, from a public policy point of view that social tenants are afforded the same protection as homeowners. The introduction or a PAR would bring the protection of social rented tenants in line with the protection being introduced for homeowners in the Home Owner and Debtor Protection (Scotland) Act 2010.

However, GLC is concerned that the Scottish Government’s approach could give rise to unintended consequences, unless appropriate safeguards were put in place.  For example, we are concerned that the PAR could be seen as evidence that it is reasonable to evict in terms of section 16 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. GLC is concerned that social landlords could argue that as they have complied with the PAR, and that as their tenants still had arrears, it would be ‘reasonable’ to evict. We believe that it is important that full consideration is still given to the requirements of section 16.

Although we hope the introduction of a pre-action requirement will reduce the number of cases raised in court we think care must be taken to ensure that the result is not an automatic assumption that all the cases that end up in court must be ones where nothing can be done to assist the tenant and that eviction will be reasonable in these cases.

We also think it is important that landlords continue to work with the tenant to solve the problem of the arrears, even after court action is raised. Our experience is that once the case has been raised in court some landlords become focused on obtaining a decree and are not as willing to negotiate repayment arrangements with tenants. We are concerned that the pre-action requirement may be seen as landlords as all they are required to do to assist a tenant. Instead we believe it should be seen as a minimum level of assistance that must be given before an action can competently be raised. Landlords should still be encourage to engage with tenants and work towards preventing eviction even after court action has been raised.

GLC’s full response, led by Lindsay Paterson, Solicitor, to the Scottish Government’s consultation is available online here.

The POHP won in the category of ‘Partnership working in adult care services’. Collecting the award on behalf of the partnership, POHP co-ordinator, GLC’s Alistair Sharp was delighted that our innovative approach to preventing homelessness on a sustained and long term basis had been honoured by our peers in Scotland’s social care and health professions.

Alistair said: “The award is testimony to the hard work of all of the partners involved, and is fantastic recognition at a time when we hope to further develop our service by providing an even earlier system of intervention to prevent homelessness in the South West Glasgow”.

A short documentary film of the work of the POHP can be seen here (opens in Real Player). This is a powerful 15 minute documentary of the work of Govan Law Centre and it’s local partners in Glasgow’s Southside with respect to their innovative work to prevent homelessness on a sustained and holistic basis.

The legislation will lead to the establishment of a code of conduct setting minimum standards of practice expected of registered property factors, and will afford greater protection for homeowners from rogue factors.

The publication of the Bill follows several years of campaigning by Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor at the Govan Law Centre, who has worked alongside the Maryhill MSP pushing for legislation to clean-up property factoring in Scotland. 

Commenting on the publication of the Bill Patricia Ferguson MSP said: “This is a milestone in the campaign to regulate property factors, and to protect homeowners from the unscrupulous practices of those factors that have brought the whole industry into disrepute”.

“It is two and half years since I launched a consultation on my proposal to require the registration of factors, which showed overwhelming support for legislation. Hopes were raised when the Office of Fair Trading carried out a study into Scottish Property Factors, but then dashed when they only recommended a voluntary scheme despite concluding that the system is not working well”.

“There was disappointment when the Scottish Government refused to legislate, favouring an industry-led voluntary accreditation scheme similar to that which has already failed homeowners. But the campaign was boosted when my proposal received the support of 45 MSPs from across the political divide to allow a Bill to be introduced, and when the whole Parliament supported a motion welcoming the progress towards legislation”.

“The publication of my Bill is yet further progress towards legislation that will ensure better accountability of property managers for their standards and the services that they provide and I hope that it will continue to receive the support of my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament.”

GLC’s Mike Dailly said: “Property factors must be the only industry in Scotland who are virtually unlicensed and unregulated. When one third of your customers are unhappy with the service you provide it’s time for a statutory solution. The Scottish Government are consulting on a voluntary accreditation scheme, but we’ve had self-regulation for centuries and it hasn’t worked. The people of Scotland need a solution with legal teeth, and the Bill provides that solution in a fair and measured way”.

“By introducing a formal requirement on all factors to be registered in a national register of property factors, the Bill would ensure that minimum standards of practice were adhered to across Scotland. Individual homeowners would be able to rely on those minimum standards in their day to day dealings with their property factor, and in an extreme case a bad factor could be de-registered to prevent them causing ongoing consumer detriment”.

“Where a property factor failed to meet their contractual duty, or failed to reasonably adhere to the minimum standards, a homeowner would be entitled to take their dispute to a new tribunal called the ‘homeowner housing committee’. There would be no need for a lawyer, and no legal expenses to worry about. The Bill gives the homeowner housing committee the power to ensure compliance with the contract and minimum standards, and where appropriate, require the factor to made a compensatory award or refund to the homeowner”.

Full details of the Bill are available on the Scottish Parliament’s website here.

Právne centrum Govanhill Law Centre reprezentuje mnoho klientov, ktorí boli nedávno nezákonne vysťahovaní alebo ich prenajímateľ ich bytu obťažoval. Ak ste nájomník, angl.tenant, alebo máte povolenie od prenajímateľa bývať v byte, máte nasledujúce práva:

• Ak Vás Váš prenajímateľ chce vysťahovať, musí Vám doručiť právne dokumenty a dať Vám čas na vysťahovanie, aj keď máte nedoplatok na nájomnom.
• Váš prenajímateľ sa dopúšťa trestného činu, ak:

           Vás násilne vysťahuje bez toho, aby získal povolenie od súdu,

           vymení zámok na dverách a nedá Vám kľúč,

           odstaví Vám elektrinu, plyn alebo vodu – toto je známe ako obťažovanie,

           narušuje Vaše pokojoné nažívanie v tomto dome.

Ak prenajímateľ poruší zákon, mali by ste zatelefonovať na políciu. Bezplatnú právnu pomoc môžete tiež získať v právnom centre Govanhill Law Centre. Govanhill Law Centre, 168 Butterbiggins Road, Glasgow, G42 7AL, 0141 4332665.

Govanhill Law Centre has represented several clients recently who have been unlawfully evicted, or harassed by their private landlord.  If you are a tenant or residential occupier you have the following rights:

• If your landlord wishes to evict you, they must serve legal documents upon you and give you time to move out, even if you have rent arrears,
• It is a criminal offence for your landlord to

            Change your locks and not give you a key

            Cut off your electricity, gas or water- this is known as harassment

            Interfere with your peaceful enjoyment of your home.

If your landlord breaks the law, you should contact the police.  You can also obtain free legal advice from Govanhill Law Centre, 168 Butterbiggins Road, Glasgow, G42 7AL.  Their phone number is 0141 4332665.

Unscrupulous private landlords continue to operate with impunity and under the ‘radar’ of local authority registration schemes according to evidence from Govan and Govanhill Law Centres, submitted to the Scottish Government today, in response to its consultation paper on Scotland’s new Housing Bill.

Lindsay Paterson, solicitor at Govanhill Law Centre said:
“The very landlords who ought not to be landlords because they are not ‘fit and proper’ people continue to operate under the radar – they will never be refused registration or removed from the register as they will never apply to be registered. As things stand therefore, the private landlord registration scheme is not an effective way of ensuring those not fit to be landlords are stopped from renting out properties“.

Govan Law Centre (GLC) has highlighted the major inconsistency of local authority resources deployed to private landlord registration schemes (PLRS) across Scotland.

GLC believes Scotland’s private rented sector needs a new national regulator with comparable resources as are available to the national regulator for social landlords in order to protect vulnerable tenants in the private rented sector. The current disjointed and under funded local schemes have failed to work.

GLC is calling for a new national regulatory agency with ‘teeth’, which should require all private landlords to undergo Disclosure Scotland checks in order to help establish whether they are ‘fit and proper’ persons to act as landlords. GLC is particularly concerned with the Scottish Government’s idea of giving private sector landlords the right to undertake ‘DIY evictions’ through a statutory abandonment process.

Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor at GLC said:
“In our experience all too many private sector landlords routinely ignore the law, so to suggest they should be given the power to carry out a ‘DIY eviction’ in certain circumstances is extremely unwise. Govan Law Centre is concerned that such a power would be automatically abused with many vulnerable tenants and their families being summarily evicted at all hours of the day and night. The Scottish Government’s consultation paper has a lot of good ideas, but this is not one of them”

GLC’s full consultation response is available online here.

The Scottish Government’s consultation paper is available online here.

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre/2010/april/polish-students-awarded-163-25-000-in-discrimination-and-unfair-dismissal-case/

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently released a decision which is of great significance to many EU Migrants.

In the case London Borough of Harrow v Ibrahim, the English Court of Appeal asked the ECJ to clarify EU law on the right of certain EU citizens and their families to reside in another member state.  The court confirmed that a child of an EU worker or former EU worker, has a right to continue to reside in the host member state to complete their education.  Further, it confirmed that the primary carer of such a child has a right to reside in the host member state to enable the child to continue their education and that this right is not subject to the primary carer being self sufficient.  This means that the primary carer can apply for benefits and homelessness assistance, which they may not otherwise have been eligible for.

The primary carer does not need to have been an EU worker themselves, nor do they have to be an EU national as long as one of the child’s parents was at one time a migrant worker (even if they no longer reside in the member state).  In the Ibrahim case the primary carer, Mrs Ibrahim was Somalian but her former husband was Danish and had been a worker in England before the couple separated and he returned to Denmark.  The court confirmed that Mrs Ibrahim’s children had a right to continue to reside in the UK to complete their education because their father had previously been an EU worker and Mrs Ibrahim had a right to reside as their primary carer.  Mrs Ibrahim therefore had a right to homelessness assistance.

This decision is very important and will have a significant impact on the ability of many of Govanhill Law Centre’s clients as well as other EU and non- EU migrants to support themselves.  It will particularly assist a number of A8 nationals (people from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia) who lost their jobs before they completed 12 months registered work and will now be able to claim benefits and homelessness assistance which they have previously been denied. Previously many A8 nationals had been unable to claim benefits or homelessness assistance if they became unemployed before completing 12 months of registered work as they were held not to have a right of residence in the UK.  Anyone in that situation who has children in school will now be able to claim a right to reside as the child’s primary carer. In these situations the primary carer of the child will often be the former migrant worker themselves.   This will assist a large number of families who have faced destitution after losing their jobs in the recession.

There will be a significant number of people who are not receiving assistance that they are entitled to and Govanhill Law Centre would encourage any migrants or advisors with clients they think this may apply to get in touch for advice if necessary.