Housing association celebrates court victory over poor service provider » Housing » 24dash.com

A Glasgow housing association has won a court battle with a multi-national IT firm who it claimed provided poor standards of service.

Housing management system provider Kypera sued community-run Blochairn Housing Co-operative for breach of a contract it had cancelled in 2007 on the grounds of poor service and lack of confidence in the company’s ability to resolve outstanding problems.

Kypera took Blochairn to court claiming that the contract tied them in for three years.

The judge at Bradford County Court dismissed Kypera’s claim, ordering Kypera to pay damages of £3,433 for wasted time to be paid to Blochairn Housing Co-operative, as well as ordering Kypera to pay Blochairn’s court costs. The judge also refused Kypera leave to appeal the case.

Kypera is a specialist provider of business solutions,including a housing management solution technology which is used across the sector managing rents, repairs, service charges, waiting lists and planned maintenance.

Blochairn Housing Cooperative owns 220 houses in the Royston area of North Glasgow, consisting of a mix of both new build developments and refurbished tenement properties.

Michael Carberry, director of Blochairn Housing Co-operative, said: “Kypera took over Harkins & Anderson when they went into administration in 2006 in an attempt to expand into the Scottish housing association market, but they struggled to come to grips with the computer system they had acquired and as a result they lost a lot of Scottish customers in 2007.

“Kypera threatened to raise an action against us in the English courts, but we stood our ground. We were not prepared to hand over our tenants’ money to a company who had failed to deliver what they promised.

“I was surprised when they followed through with the court action but they didn’t seem to understand the nature of small community owned housing associations in Scotland. The judge said he found the evidence given by Kypera to be unconvincing.

“The court’s decision was as complete a victory as we could have hoped for and a victory for common sense.”