Lawyers for victims of the ACT government's failed attempt to force more than 300 tenants out of their homes are initiating a class action.
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They are collecting evidence for a court case against the ACT government to seek compensation after 337 letters were delivered by hand to occupants telling them they would be forcibly "relocated".
The ACT government said it would "reassess" the process after a damning report by the ACT Ombudsman said the policy had caused "significant distress".
Three cases brought by tenants are currently being considered by the ACT Supreme Court. Their lawyers have indicated that the ACT government has already conceded in court that its decision was legally wrong.
In the light of that, legal action on behalf of a much bigger group of tenants is now being readied.
"We are looking to speak with anyone who might have been affected by this process already to hear their story," Sam Tierney, principal solicitor at Ken Cush and Associates, said.
"The ACT Ombudsman's report into the forced and flawed removal of tenants from their homes by ACT Housing is deeply disturbing," he said.
"Those failures by ACT Housing have caused significant distress and suffering for some of the ACT's most vulnerable community members. We have now been asked by our lead applicant to initiate a class action against the ACT government seeking damages," the lawyer for the tenants said.
Under such a class action, lead cases are often chosen to represent the bigger group. If the court finds in favour of the lead cases, the whole group is then usually entitled to compensation.
How much that might be depends on how many tenants want to get involved.
Lawyers aren't putting a figure on it but compensation to each tenant would depend on their degree of suffering from the eviction notice. There's a contact form on the Ken Cush lawyers' website.
Given that the ACT government has conceded that its process was flawed, it is suggested that the total amount it would have to pay might run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps even higher than a million.
Some of the tenants had been in their homes for many years.
The Ombudsman's report said of one tenant that she "was an elderly and physically impaired pensioner who had lived in her property for several decades and believed that it would be her home for life". Elderly women were disproportionately affected by the forced relocations, community organisations said.
When the Ombudsman's report was published, Housing Minister Yvette Berry said she was "sorry". The process would be "reassessed".
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The report by the ACT Ombudsman found Housing ACT "underestimated" the effect of relocation on tenants. The government department notification was "impersonal" and caused "significant distress".
Before the eviction notices, the ACT government had previously sent letters to tenants but the Ombudsman found they were vague. They didn't make clear that people might lose their homes.
"In our view," the Ombudsman's report said, "this correspondence had the appearance of marketing material from government.
The ACT government presented its change of policy as a result of the Ombudsman's criticism but it did not make clear that it had conceded the legal case in the ACT Supreme Court as well.
Ms Berry said she accepted the government needed to do better.
"We worked really hard to make sure we were communicating really well with tenants but we accept that the Ombudsman has found that was not appropriate and we need to do that," she said.
"It was never anybody's intention to cause even more distress and we understand this decision has done that and I'm very sorry."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
