Buy-to-let landlord Fergus Wilson has banned “coloured” people from being his tenants because he says they make his properties smell of curry.
Wilson gave the order in an email to letting agents Evolution Properties, in Ashford, Kent.
The email, which was leaked to The Sun, listed Wilson’s requirements for tenants, including: “No coloured people because of the curry smell at the end of the tenancy.”
Asked if he had told Evolution not to tell The Sun: “Certainly at one point we have.”
He told the paper: “To be honest, we’re getting overloaded with coloured people.
“It is a problem with certain types of coloured people – those who consume curry – it sticks to the carpet.
“You have to get some chemical thing that takes the smell out. In extreme cases you have to replace the carpet.”
Roy Fever, manager at Evolution Properties, told EYE: “We don’t condone this at all.
“We would never implement a policy like that.”
Wilson has already banned a variety of tenants, including battered wives and people on low incomes.
Comments (9)
I love making curries and I’m as pale as a ghost. Funny that I don’t get excluded then.
Every day?
Its the extreems that cause the issues. Unfortunatly some tenants like to have a curry and cook with ghee each day. Ghee does stick and spread and is hard to clean off
When I cook a curry once or twice a month I dont use Ghee.
Thats the issue is the damage and associated cleaning issues that go with letting to tenants that like to eat curry with Ghee every day. They also tend to try and move in their extended family when they come to vist for 2 or 3 months………. they like to have more people move in then agreed, they dont tend to understand the need to heat and ventilate a property and thus have more issues with condensation which with the cooking causes more issues.
Often better for a landlord to try and minimise these risks.
Is the “they” you refer to talking about people who use Ghee in curries? You seem quite confident to make other assumptions based on this.
They also tend to try and move in their extended family
they like to have more people move in then agreed
they dont tend to understand the need to heat and ventilate a property
What else do “they” do?
Imagine if we were all tarred with the same crooked agent brush? Doesn’t seem far to do the same to another group of people even if you involve race or not.
There is an easy way to check if tenants will create “curry smells”, and I believe it is 100% legal as it does not depend on the race or color of the person. You visit 100% of people who put in applications to rent from you in their current home, and if it has a strong smell, you don’t rent to them.
I would very much welcome this as a common practice for all agents to carry out. Not really sure who will pay for this though. Obviously we can’t charge the poor tenant – at some point soon we won’t be allowed to charge them for checking whether they have any CCJ’s.
If visting them in their current home saved you the cost of having an push office to do the paperwork in would it cost any more?
(I think that is how some of the start up agents and landlords can afort to do home visits to check people out.)
Whilst the views of Mr Wilson will certainly fall foul of the ‘PC Crowd’ it does raise a genuine point. As a letting agent of 15 years I have spoken to many landlords who express the same concerns. I also know that from doing this job for so long that it is a justified concern. The trouble with this country of ours is that everyone is too afraid to say what they really think for fear of being branded a racist. The truth is the people who make these comments are not racist at all. The vast majority of landlords just want to have a good tenant who pays the rent on time and looks after their property.
Is it a justified concern for just curry? What if the tenant used their deep fat fryer for a year? Seems strange just to single out one particular food.
Whilst Mr Wilson may fall foul of discrimination laws and his views may be extreme and not supported by most the fact is that this is a breach of client confidentiality on part of the agency concerned. I am guessing this will get dislikes.