Infamous for his Draconian letting rules, the property tycoon and arguably Britain’s most controversial landlord, is retiring from the business.
Fergus Wilson is in the process of selling his entire portfolio of 300 properties in Kent after a series of court battles over the way he’s treated his tenants, including discrimination.
As a result of this, hundreds of renters now face eviction.
“I do feel sad for people who are going to be homeless”, said Mr Wilson, but “I can do what I like. You don’t want me to lie about it, do you?”
The big sell-off
Mr Wilson and his wife Judith, bought their first rental property in 1991 and built up an impressive portfolio of around 1,000 properties over the years, providing homes for nearly 10,000 tenants. A large proportion of that portfolio was liquidated a couple of years ago and now the Wilsons are offloading the remainder.
“I shall be very sorry to see the houses go which my wife and I have built up over many years” – said Mr Wilson.
It’s believed there have been around 20 expressions of interest, mainly from overseas buyers. However, the landlord has named Golding Homes – Maidstone based developer and housing association, who had also shown interest, his preferred buyer.
“Clearly I want the market price for my houses but I do prefer them not to end up in foreign hands. (…) I am not restricting my options but make it clear that a purchaser such as Golding Homes will keep the properties available to rent indefinitely whereas if the portfolio were sold to overseas buyers who knows whether [it] would be split up and sold on and current tenants evicted.”
When asked what he was going to do with the money, Mr Wilson said: “We haven’t thought about what we will do with the money yet, I’m not going to buy a Rolls-Royce or anything like that.”
“Landlords don’t have duty of care”
Fergus Wilson just recently featured on the BBC Panorama programme, examining the impact of his decision to sell-off on tenants. He bluntly told the reporter that he is in charge of the situation – “The landlord rules, not the tenant.” He added: “Basically, we have got two types of tenants – those who agree with me and ex-tenants.”
Mr Wilson also gave his views on the UK’s housing market and stressed an urgent need to build more homes as private landlords can’t cater for all people living in the private rented sector.
“What you have to understand is that the private sector landlord does not have a duty of care. It is the local council who has the duty of care.”
He continued: “Not everyone on housing benefit is a problem, but every problem is on housing benefit.”
“The problem is they don’t get paid enough in benefits from Her Majesty’s government to pay the rent.”
Councillor Gerald White of Ashford Borough Council assured that the authority will help evicted tenants as much as they can.
