HOMEOWNERS landed with crippling repair bills by Glasgow Housing Association today told of the trauma of being taken to court and forced to pay up.

HOMEOWNERS landed with crippling repair bills by Glasgow Housing Association today told of the trauma of being taken to court and forced to pay up.

Hundreds of residents given just one year to find up to £6000 for work carried out on their blocks face legal action over the bills.

Now dozens of people who haven't managed to pay have been taken to court by the GHA and issued with Open Decrees - a move which gives the association the power to arrest wages at any time and ultimately repossess homes.

Single mum Pauline Ferrie appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court last Monday. The 35-year-old childcare worker, from Greenfield, who has a six-year-old daughter Teigan, has been in hospital for stress over the £300 monthly repair bills she simply couldn't afford.

She said: "I have been running around looking for loans but I can't afford any of the repayments.

"The GHA doesn't look at people's finances. I just don't know what I'm going to do."

Mum-of-two Pauline Connor, 41, from Tollcross, says she has been forced to remortgage her home to pay a £500 monthly bill. She said: "The GHA has ripped the heart out of my new home."

Campaigners want a moratorium on all court cases until an independent financial investigation is carried out by Audit Scotland into GHA's handling of the refurbishment programme.

The GHA says it is legally obliged to get payment from house owners for repairs within a year.

Any extension would have to be authorised by Executive housing agency, Communities Scotland.

Campaigners will be putting their case to the housing regulator on February 19.

Glasgow MSP Sandra White said: "The GHA has put these women in debt.

"It is playing with peoples' lives."

A GHA spokeswoman said: "We do not seek payment until after the work has been completed and give owners a reasonable opportunity - up to 12 months - to make arrangements to pay the costs."

She added: "Legal action is always a last resort and is only taken in cases where the owner has refused to pay or has not honoured his or her payment plan."

"As a registered charity, Glasgow Housing Association is legally obliged to recover the costs of improvements from owners within 12 months to ensure that our tenants are not subsidising