He keeps saying he is selling up but Britain’s best known buy-to-let landlord Fergus Wilson is still apparently very much in business – and has issued new letting criteria.
Posted up on a Facebook page for residents of Ashford, Kent, Wilson’s list of unacceptable tenants includes:
- Tenants with children under 18
- Single parents
- Tenants on housing benefits
- Single adults
- Plumbers
- Battered wives
- Smokers
- People with pets
- Low income workers
- Zero hours workers
Wilson – who is understood by local agents to have sold some of his properties by auction but not his whole portfolio – concludes, somewhat bafflingly: “Not all tenants on benefits are a problem, but all problems are on benefits.”
We’re not quite sure who might fit his criteria, but at a guess, a non-smoking battered husband still living with his wife, with no pets, children or plumbing experience, and a supervisory role at a call centre.
However, maybe local letting agents can advise?
Comments (6)
The name; ‘Donald Trump’ sprigs to mind!
Don’t worry all letting agents will be good tenants
If you removed Fergus Wilsons name to this story, I suspect t there would be many letting agents who would agree in some way with the criteria … all from past experience. We do, far too many benefit tenants have the wrong attitude, handed everything on a plate with no interest of any effort from them. But we do have benefit tenants on our books who are a dream. Sadly they are in the minority. I can name many of those on his hit list that have caused £K’s worth of damage, dragged out screaming by the bailiffs holding onto their 55″ TV and Sky box. They have no respect for the property, landlord or agent and just milk the system that is handed to them on a plate. Is it surprising there such a list?
While I find his approach to letting distasteful in many ways, I have to agree that he should be able to limit what he sees as risky tenants based on his experience. It’s a costly and long winded process to get rid of a bad tenant, as we all know, so trying to avoid them is not unreasonable. I suspect the deeper story is in why he felt the need to reiterate this to the agents working for him.
And the WilsonPR machine just keeps on a-chuggin’!
If taken seriously, isn’t this just an experienced landlord trying to limit his experience with tenants that he has found troublesome in the past?
If ever the government was aiming to crack down on rogue landlords, he must be high on their list of targets.