Dozens of eviction hearings are taking place in Glasgow this month days after the covid eviction ban ended.
The emergency measure which prevented evictions taking place during the pandemic ended on May 31 and for Glasgow last Saturday when the city was moved to level 2 restrictions.
It is still not permitted to seek eviction if a local authority area is in level three or four restrictions.
The court rolls at Glasgow Sheriff Court show 28 cases where housing associations in the city are involved in eviction proceedings.
There are another 60 plus at the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, Housing and Property Chamber, where private landlords have begun eviction proceedings against tenants.
There are 20 housing associations in Glasgow involved in actions against tenants at the Sheriff Court, in Glasgow, tomorrow.
The First Tier Tribunal cases at the Housing and Property Chamber in Glasgow, involves 64 private landlords over the next four weeks.
The hearings come as opposition politicians and housing campaigners are calling for the ban to be extended while there is still any level of restrictions in place and while people still remain on furlough and many people are worried about their job.
There are more women named as respondents in the cases than men.
Of the 28 cases at the Sheriff Court, 22 are against women and six against men.
At the tribunals there are 27 against sole women respondents, 21 against sole male respondents and 18 against a couple.
Labour politicians have been calling for the eviction ban to be extended.
Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill last week asked the First Minister about it, who said it would be kept under consideration.
She said the eviction ban has to remain until the impact of the ending of the furlough scheme becomes clear, with more job losses expected.
She said: "At same time there must be financial support for renters in arrears due to the pandemic."
The First Minister said “There needs to be a package of measures and we will continue to keep that under on-going review.”
While housing campaigners have taken it up with the government, also.
Sean Clerkin, of the Scottish Tenants Organisation, has written to Shona Robison asking for the ban to be re-instated.
He said: “We are calling on the Scottish Government with immediate effect to reinstate the eviction ban until the Pandemic is over and to intervene to ensure all tenants in financial hardship have access to the existing Tenant Hardship Fund valued at £10 million.
“We must not go backwards in terms of increasing homelessness on our streets in Scotland which seems to be happening.
"Instead of trying to evict tenants housing associations should be keeping them in housing rather than putting Glasgow City Council under the unnecessary more expensive process of re-housing these families who are in severe financial hardship because of the pandemic."
Debt, including housing debt accounted for 13% of all advice given by Citizens Advice Scotland in the final three months of last year, with most requests for assistance coming from tenants in the private rented sector.
In a report, CAS said that the level of people seeking advice on rent arrears increased "dramatically" at the start of the pandemic, with an "immediate jump" in the private rented sector.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here