Kent millionaire property tycoon Fergus Wilson from Boughton Monchelsea evicts hundreds on housing benefits and prefers

[letsmakeamark]

More than 200 tenants on benefits have been served eviction notices by a Kent property mogul worth millions.

 

Landlord Fergus Wilson has decided not to rent any of his more than 1,000 properties

in Ashford, Maidstone and elsewhere in the county to people receiving housing benefits.

 

The 65-year-old tycoon said he prefers to rent to eastern European migrants, who he claimed are more likely to pay their rent on time.

 

He estimated more than 50% of his tenants in Ashford - and around 90% of those in Maidstone - come from eastern Europe.

 

Mr Wilson said: "This decision is only down to money - it has nothing to do with the personalities involved.

 

"When it comes to money, over half of people on benefits were defaulting on their rent, and when it comes to people who are working,

we've not had one single person default on one single penny.

 

"You can appreciate why. Rents are going up in line with the price of houses, and housing benefit levels are dropping at the same time.

 

"Tenants from eastern Europe, places like Poland, have been here a number of years now and have built up a good enough credit rating to rent privately.

 

"We won't see the impact of more recent migration for years to come, but people on benefits are having to compete with them.

 

"My message to people is 'get yourself a job, and you will get yourself a house'."

 

Ex-maths teacher Mr Wilson and wife Judith have built up a property portfolio thought to be worth close to £225million.

"My message to people is 'get yourself a job, and you will get yourself a house'..." - buy-to-let tycoon Fergus Wilson

The couple, from Boughton Monchelsea, near Maidstone, made their millions through buy-to-let investments.

 

Mr Wilson added:

"We sent out section 21 notices telling people on housing benefits that they have to leave after six months.

"I look at other landlords, and every one of them has done the same.

"A lot have gone from natural wastage, as they can't afford to stay."

 

He added: "The problem is that you have a finite number of houses, but more people wanting to rent them than places are available.

"With that pressure, what tends to give is the poorest people at the bottom of the economic pile.

"We are going to be in a position in the next 20 years where it becomes more and more difficult for people to find housing, and no one seems to have an answer.

"You tell people in a place like Ashford that they need more housing and they're likely to lynch you - they are sick of being built on, but it's a fact."

 

Landlord Fergus Wilson, pictured with wife Judith, is refusing to let properties to people on housing benefits

 

Housing charity Shelter said the refusal of private landlords to accept welfare claimants as tenants is forcing some to leave their home towns or accept poor quality housing.

 

 

Original Here : http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentish_express/news/fergus-wilson-10923/

[Satterthwaite]

Sign of the times?

[Steve__M]

When the banks crashed and brought down the economy, the government bailed out the banks with tax payer's money and the Bank of England reduced interest rates. The latest government is now subsidising house buyers with George Osborne specifically saying he wants to support private landlords and is not interested in social landlords.

 

These policies prevented house prices falling and have now led to them beginning to rise. If we had a real "market economy" house prices would have collapsed in 2008 and the Wilsons (who built their portfolio by borrowing to the hilt) would have been bankrupted.

 

So the irony is that the housing benefit received by some families is a pittance compared with the huge amount of "benefits" received by the Wilsons as a result of successive government policies.

[citizenB]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?414265-PRS-landlord-to-evict-tenants-on-housing-benefit.

[citizenB]

It is a vicious circle.. the more economic migrants you bring into the country, the more services/homes etc will be required. If we werent increasing the population at such a rate of knots then we wouldnt need to build more homes, require more supermarkets, etc ! Perhaps before concerning ourselves with where these migrants are going to live, we should ensure that the original population is housed and have employment.

 

What I dont understand is that we have people saying that Eastern European workers work for less money - so how can they afford the inflated rents !

[letsmakeamark]

What effect would it have if all hb tenants stop paying for a few months. would that not get the message across ?

[citizenB]

What effect would it have if all hb tenants stop paying for a few months. would that not get the message across ?

 

Probably not, they would most likely find themselves in cardboard city, freeing up loads of properties !!

[sillygirl1]

From what I understand about this gentleman is that he is a businessman rather than a gentleman, therefore he sees a gap in the market and plugs it (or creates the gap for him to fill) and is successful at it.

 

I don't think that his approach is right, if the HB tenants are NOT in arrears then he could be landing himself with a very large legal bill (or one of his companies are) and that could open the floodgates for former HB tenants of his who have been squeezed out.

 

There are better approaches to social housing, but of course the Conservatives don't see it that way, they don't like social housing (look at what happened after the First World war to see the history of how they 'created' another underclass, one which exists today) and almost all governments have one eye on the 'public purse' when it suits them.

 

Social housing needs to be kept out of central government hands and in the hands of local government where possible, to make it effective in the local communities it serves.

 

In my area there are a large number of one bed flats now that are proving difficult to sell as everyone wants two and three bedroom places with a small garden, so the one bed flats are being left empty - not good economically and not good socially as they are now open to squatters.

 

No viable alternative approaches to the public/private/social housing problem has been evolved, partly because of the price of the land, the amount of money it takes to build properties, and the financial benefits available to private landlords which, if available to local councils, could swing the pendulum their way.

[ericsbrother]

You dont get it, Mr Wilson is doing a publicity stunt to lobby the government to pay a higher level of HB directly to the landlord. He wants a steady income stream so he can buy more property and the vagaries of his tenants' payments to him make it harder to persuade the banks to lend him even more money. What is not written in the article is that he gets the eastern europeans to pay a year's rent up front-nice earner for him- and that allows him to invest their money and make him a fat profit when it is not deserved. Could be awkward if they all want their money back at the same time.

[honeybee13]

You dont get it, Mr Wilson is doing a publicity stunt to lobby the government to pay a higher level of HB directly to the landlord. He wants a steady income stream so he can buy more property and the vagaries of his tenants' payments to him make it harder to persuade the banks to lend him even more money. What is not written in the article is that he gets the eastern europeans to pay a year's rent up front-nice earner for him- and that allows him to invest their money and make him a fat profit when it is not deserved. Could be awkward if they all want their money back at the same time.

 

That's an interesting observation, ericsbrother, and I can see the attraction for Mr Wilson. Do you have a source for the information please?

 

HB

[Steve__M]

This article, and an attached letter from Fergus Wilson is quite revealing.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/10/fergus-wilson-property-tycoon-mass-evictions