A SCOTTISH Green MSP has succeeded in raising £10,000 to fight the eviction of a constituent from the home he has lived in for almost three decades.

Andy Wightman launched a crowdfunder before Christmas to raise the cash needed to pursue a legal case on human rights grounds to halt the eviction of 67-year-old Colin Brown. He faces being evicted from his home in Junction Street, Leith, by a corporate landlord.

Wightman, who reached the £10,000 target yesterday, said: “Work is under way and we will report further in coming weeks. Private tenants should not be subject to eviction simply because a corporate landlord wishes to liquidise its assets.”

The MSP raised the challenge to the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 in the belief that the legislation violates his constituent’s human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, with respect to private and family life and the protection of property.

Brown moved into his flat 27 years ago, soon after residency rules set in the late 1980s came into effect.

READ MORE: MSP’s £10k bid to aid legal challenge after man fights eviction

Express Investment Company, his landlord, represented by Drummond Miller in Edinburgh, wants to dispose of it and 28 others and has served all sitting tenants notice to quit.

All the others have moved on, but Brown is fighting to stay and is to challenge his eviction at Scotland’s specialist housing tribunal.

Wightman’s crowdfunder will be used to pursue a separate court action to argue the eviction would breach European human rights legislation.

He said: “We believe that it may not be proportionate under Article 8 to evict a tenant who is 67 years old and has lived in his home for over 27 years.”

One donor to the crowdfunder said: “Thank you for doing this. As house prices rocket beyond the reach of so many in Scotland, it is important housing law adapts to provide private tenants with some security, I hope this is successful.”

Wightman said 15% of Scotland’s population live in the private rented sector and this case could be of “wider significance” to them: “We believe that there are elements of private tenancy law that do not adequately uphold the human right to a home, to a private and family life and to possessions because it is too easy in too many cases to evict a tenant at short notice.”

He added: “We have already secured pro bono advice from a leading academic authority.”

Drummond Miller told The National: “Our clients Express Investment Co Ltd have advised they have no comment to make.”