The Regulator took the statutory action after the Association identified that its governing body did not meet its own constitutional requirements and sought support from the Regulator to address the issues.

The Association had to seek the Regulator’s support as its committee did not have the powers to act to ensure the Association meets its own governance requirements.

A regulation plan which describes how the Regulator will work with the Association states: “Molendinar Park was in the process of commissioning a review of its governance arrangements when it identified that its governing body was not constituted in accordance with its rules. This meant that the majority of the governing body were not properly elected members and therefore could not make decisions on behalf of the Association. This was a serious governance failure that had been on-going for a significant period of time and which posed a serious and immediate risk to tenants’ interests.

“Under these circumstances the governing body had no power to act to rectify the problem and so we have decided to use our statutory powers under section 65 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 (‘the Act’) to appoint four members to Molendinar Park’s governing body.

“Molendinar Park has acted appropriately in bringing this matter to our attention and requesting regulatory support. It is working openly and co-operatively with us to address this serious governance failure.”

Molendinar Park Housing Association has pledged to work with the Scottish Housing Regulator and the statutory appointments to the Association to meet the constitutional requirements of its governing body.

Chair Lori McElroy told Scottish Housing News: “In the course of an internal governance review Molendinar Park Housing Association identified an issue relating to the composition of the Association’s governing body and sought the support of the Scottish Housing Regulator to address this.

“The Scottish Housing Regulator has published a Regulation Plan which places Molendinar Park on ‘high engagement’ and has used its statutory powers to appoint four governing body members to the Association. Molendinar Park is committed to working closely and co-operatively with the Scottish Housing Regulator during this period.

“Molendinar Park staff are continuing to focus on delivering high quality, responsive services to meet the needs of all of the Association’s customers and have written to tenants to assure them that they will continue to experience ‘business as usual’.

“The Association looks forward to working with the four appointees over the next few months as it undertakes a wide ranging review of its governance arrangements.”

Christine Macleod, director of regulation (governance and performance), said the Regulator took the action to protect the interests of Molendinar Park’s tenants and service users.

Ms Macleod added: “We’re making these appointments to support Molendinar Park to address this serious governance failure and ensure it has a properly constituted Management Committee. The Association was unable to address its issues without our intervention. It acted appropriately by reporting this to us and has been working openly and co-operatively with us. We will continue to engage with the Association as it works, with the support of the appointees, to address this governance problem.”

Registered in 1993, Molendinar Park owns and manages 582 homes and provides factoring services to 250 properties in the East End of Glasgow. It employs nine members of staff.

As at 31 March 2016 its turnover for the year was £2.15 million and its debt per unit was £5,140.