The intervening years had been blighted by a long running legal battle in respect of latent defects on the Barnsbury Mews scheme.  The builders, J & J Dean went into liquidation as soon as the scheme had been completed.  On legal advice we therefore pursued a legal action against the architect.  We had to do this because the Greater London Council was unable to fund the necessary repairs unless we had exhausted every other legal means of recourse (see Housing Corporation circular 21/82).

The legal action ran on for years.  Life was very difficult for the Board of Management who were trying to do too much with not enough income.  There were many problems with damp etc.,  the Association wanted to carry out these essential repairs, they had to pay legal bills and they also had to pay the mortgage – something had to give and, because we put the tenants first, it was the mortgage that suffered.

This brought our very existence into question.  There were moves to merge BHA with another association but these attempts to eradicate us were steadfastly resisted.  

The case was scheduled to go to Court in 1989 but never quite got there because just before the hearing the architect’s insurers made an offer which was accepted by BHA.  The problem was that a lot of the expenditure we incurred couldn’t be reclaimed, for instance, in a number of locations we sought to find the cause of dampness but sometimes explorations were made but no evidence was found. In the end the Housing Corporation made a Major Repairs
grant available in 1992, this was sufficient to get all the repairs done and to get BHA back on an even keel.

By 1994 with all the outstanding work completed BHA looked to further develop.  A site was identified at 9 Barnsbury Park.  This was a complicated purchase because it was owned by a company that had leased it to another.  The company with the lease wanted out.  Our Chairman at the time, David Knight, organised a very complicated deal involving a reverse premium and a deal was done to buy the old Victorian villa and factory behind.

The premises had a long history.   The area had been used for industrial works since 1890 and an industrial chimney remains - a familiar landmark in the area.

In September 2005 I went to Beech Tree Close with a representative of a company that manufacturers barriers.  When we got to 9 Barnsbury Park he noticed the really large fungus growing out of the roots of the Barnsbury Beech.  In fact the fungus was massive.  

When I got back to the office I phoned the council and told them.  With almost indecent haste, the tree had been declared possibly dangerous and a warrant was issued for its removal.