Maverick landlord loses latest bid to sue police for £1m

Never give up Fergus don’t let em grind you down

I don’t know this chap, but going off some of his pictures he is clearly overweight ( unless he’s had a recent diet), he’s 73 years old and no doubt under a lot of stress given his portfolio…. Life has a time limit, he is sailing close too it, call it a day and enjoy the time left, conservatively he has 10 years at most. Given the average life expectancy is 81 years old why all the fighting, some people forget what life is for.

As much as I'd like to see him win against the police the fact of the matter is he's unlikely to do so, the police and the courts are in effect all one and will simply close ranks and cover each others backs.

Yes, Andrew, this is the woke police force that are anti British. Very strange police force! Did you see a solicitor got a long stretch at an east london court, he was convicted after a private prosecution, by l think Americans, and the CPS and police refused to co operate ? Snaresbrook court, l think.

I am no longer involved in letting properties. All have been sold and fortunately for me before the recent price slump!

In 2008 the (then) Council Leader did say that if I pulled out Ashford would not be able to cope! Well, the recent figures obtained by the KM Group under the FOI Act bear this out!

I am grateful for the tenants who wrote under "Brilliant Landlords" which I will send to Graham Norwood.

Kent Police declined to prosecute me, so Ashford brought a Civil Case. Well, I hope they found it worthwhile! As in all these cases it is the poor tenants that suffer!

I wrote 454 letters in five years! About two a week! I think someone needs to look at the number of tenants! Interestingly one council admonished me for writing insufficient letters! The figure if 454 was about 10% of what I should have written!

There will always be people who are inadequately housed in S E England. We had done more than our bit for victims of domestic violence.

Life was so much easier without the tenants from Ashford that I took the view that we should terminate the tenancies of all other Kent Boroughs and sell out completely.

I am sure that those in Ashford will think they acted in the best interests of the tenants but those without a roof over their heads may have a different view!

Simon Logan is correct, and I should and have called it a day!

There is no possibility of HMG of providing all the houses necessary to accommodate poor people who cannot afford to own a house! It is not a case of landlords taking up the slack but of not enough houses to start with!

The country is in chaos, but I do not think landlords are!

• PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend
• 05 December 2022 20:58 PM

I stand with Fergus.
The Wokeraty have singled him out. We need to stick together.

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Mr Fergus & Judith Wilson congratulations we’ll done you entered the Market at the right time and also exited it at the right time fair play.
I have come across many articles concerning your business model etc, over the years as I understand it you were retired School Teachers before becoming serious landlords forgive my if I am wrong, also I think you have an interest in horse racing I come across a race horse owned by you in the past. Hats off for creating a successful Business in your later years.
I have a great deal of respect for Teachers although I didn’t have the opportunity to go there very long.
Enjoy the millions in the evening of your lives you would have made buttons from Teaching by comparison.

Micheal, you don't make millions letting to low income people, normally you struggle to cover your expenses. Looks like he has lots of grief from all the usual suspects, was it worth it ? Teachers noslly get a good pension. I note that he was arrested by the Kent police and detained on little or no evidence, but thought crime is treated very seriously in this country

Edwin, the difference is between then at now, it was a proper Business when they started. Property price’s were
more realistic less than half I suspect and relative to renting a sensible business return was there for any Business to be viable. We didn’t have a silly Deposit Scheme, or Mr George Osborne with his 3% SDLT, or 2015 De-Regulation Act claiming property damage to avoid eviction, we didn’t have Right to Rent check nor How to Rent requirements by Shelter and changed 13 times since introduced making it up ad hoc to prevent you using Section 21. We didn’t have licensing Schemes taking millions from Private Landlords in every Borough. We didn’t have DEICR not saying it wasn’t safe before as safe as any other Residential Property Property that’s still not required to have it.
We weren’t required to have interlinked fire Detectors or Emergency lighting, incidentally those pieces of paper cost me £1’000.00 last week. What about throwing away all my beautiful Magnet Hardwood Mahogany doors that cost £250. EA and replace whole properties with fire doors (rubbish fire doors hardly fit to hod the screw but are BS compliant) and frames, the ironmongery alone is £100. per door/ Euro locks with thumb screw inside on all so no one can get accidentally locked inside, don’t forget your fire hinges and door closer probably 2003 £70. perco waste of time. Extra cooking facilities extra washing facilities / shower. WHB, WC. The fire proofing of the stairs spindle’s and Soffits, extinguishers / fire blankets, door to loft hatch and they specify if you have one, treat kitchen units with fire resistant coating in cooking area £150 for coating , retention restrictors stays on all windows.
Edwin my friend I could go on all night and this is only a little SE iPhone.
Wait until I see now where did all the money come from to do all this, Oh it was out of Rent but also out of my pocket as I had to subsidise this for Regulatory Requirements.
I nearly forgot they labelled us Rogue’s and introduced Criminal law especially for us we are so bad for doing all this work.

Thank you all for your comments.

When my wife started around 1990 renting was really Income Neutral! As long as the Rent covered the outgoings then I was satisfied! Everyone ate at my table! Solicitors, Surveyors, Letting Agents and ate their fill. However, I had an empty plate.

It was very much seven years of Good Harvest and seven years of famine. The Sun and the Moon failed to bow down and now we have exited paying GCT as we went along!

It was Mrs Wilson who had a few racehorses, not myself, and this season she was the Leading National Hunt owner in Britain for National Hunt for the first half of the season. However, she has decided to retire to keep me in the manner she is accustomed to.

Mrs Wilson is the whiz kid with figures. I just thought it was hundreds, tens and units with a few noughts on the end!

Net migration is up half a million this year which means (based on a four-person household) 125,000 more houses are needed. There is no way HMG is going to achieve it.

One of the last things I did was to apply to increase the room capacity in a two-bed mid terrace in Maidstone to make four beds. However, part of the way through the application I sold the house but agreed to see the application through such that the new owner had the benefit of the planning permission.

Now anyone can do that if they own a two bed Mid Terrace house.

If you would like a copy of the planning consent let me know!

That’s Brilliant, Andrew you said you have a two bed house an offer well worth considering on the table but everyone knows their own situation best.
As for myself I made a decision some years ago to get what I could out of existing stock, even built a new house in between 2 others I owned using a bit of land from both rather than purchase extra properties putting myself under financial pressure unnecessarily and do it at my own pace.

My Christan names is Fergus not Andrew but well done to you for building your own house. I did that with my present house by which I mean I "ran the job" but did not do the actual work myself!

Michael Gove has today removed Housing Targets and where do the tenants go? Well, the current government thinking is you go up one extra floor! If HMG reduces housing targets, then it must increase the height of existing houses from two floors to three!

HMG is considerably dependant on Private Sector Landlords (PSL) but since 2017 has developed a Lemming Instinct to kick the PSL at every opportunity and now wonders just why no one wishes to invest in houses.

S E England needs the workforce coming over, but they are also entitled to be housed! Some questions do not have an answer!

I have considerable concerns about the calibre of MPs at Westminster! You pay peanuts and you get monkeys!

Sorry. Mr Fergus Wilson for making myself mis-understood perhaps I should have used a full stop instead of a comma or something, I’d hardly know the difference of punctuations marks anyway.
I was referring to Mr Andrew Townsend in Norfolk we usually have a bit of banter going on and I thought he might benefit from your idea of further Development of 2 bed house to 4 which was the message I was trying to convey to him but with the current high costs of doing the work, the constant attacks on PRS by Authorities and a slump in the Market probably not viable at present anyhow.
It seems to me it’s only non-earned income Businesses are viable today like the Mayor of London Mr Khan’s babies / Congestion Charge / ULEZ (now extending money for nothing ) or Parking fines, Bus lanes Penalties, licensing Schemes, Landlords fixed penalties (up to £30k without need for Court) Section 24, SDLT, C/tax etc or any other unearned income Business which is now rampant.
Apologies to all for the misunderstanding.

• Andrew townshend
• 06 December 2022 08:59 AM

I've built in the past, but the shortage of tradesmen, the cost of materials and labour, together with council planning departments and building control doesn't make it a pleasure anymore , too much red tape and utter BS

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Fergus
Who were your legal representatives? They seem to have delivered you to the wolves ?

Edwin, my friend let’s keep focused on the problems we face like Shelter with a ridiculous amount of Staff and provide no housing.
Its amazing to have someone like Fergus who was once the biggest Private Landlord in the UK to come on this platform and make his contribution in aid of our cause really.
People are always saying why don’t we write to Council’s’ & MP’s Fergus is certainly well capable of that, too many landlords don’t stand up and be counted evidently if you see 50 comments on an Article but 1500 read it. I say stop hiding behind the bush and say your piece, don’t just sit there waiting to see what happens then its too late.

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your comments. There is an over production of tenants and an under production of housing!

I noted the debate about barristers yesterday. There is an over production of Barristers and an under production of pupilages!

It is all to do with supply and demand. Law Schools produce far too many Barristers and Solicitors! There are insufficient jobs.

The housing crisis will never be sorted in my lifetime, and I intend to live forever!

Either HMG builds upwards or outwards. If upwards, then you have social problems. If outwards, then you have environmental problems!

So, what does HMG need? It needs a Housing Tsar. Not me thank you very much! They cannot pay enough! A seat on the Red Benches is not for me! I need a train to get to Charing Cross!

People live longer these days! There is no one to look after them and retirement bungalows are not for the PSLs. Ginger McCain, of Red Rum Fame, used to say to me "Fools breed them and wise men buy them!" The point being import the readymade worker from East Europe! By the way you have to house them also!

PSLs are all "business" people! They are Daily Mail readers and do not read the left- wing woke press!

Following the Panorama Programme everywhere I went folk stopped me to say you are quite right. Well, that's true! It's all to do with how you handle people!

I would say to the man or woman where do you live? What type of house? When did you buy it, how much did it cost and how much is it worth now!

You have done better than me I would say, and their chest would visibly expand by two inches!

Get them onside Rishi!

• Andrew townshend
• 06 December 2022 09:21 AM

You're right about universities turning out too many law students, a friend of mines daughter got a first in law, she couldn't get a job anywhere

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East Europeans are generally very good living people well brought up, a good Culture really. They made excellent Tenants for now because they need us.
The Girls will keep the property as if it was their own, their Husbands or boy friends usually have a trade very willing and
good at their job.
That said when they get established, which large numbers of them have already bought their own homes etc, They have now gotten their feet under the Table and Brits will sometimes have to work for them. it God Help them that’s another kettle.

• Andrew townshend
• 06 December 2022 10:03 AM

I've had East European tenants and have found them to be better than many British tenants

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I was doing a Private Prosecution at Maidstone Magistrates Court and in the Prosecutors Coffee Room a young man recognised me and told me he lived with his parents, was 29 years old, billed £1,000 a day and received £100 of it!

He commented to me that he could earn more as a lorry driver to which I replied then retrain as a lorry driver!

George Bernard Shaw famously said those who can do and those who cannot teach!

I see in the media today the Government ditches mandatory housebuilding targets.

In 2008 Gordon Brown announced we need three million new homes. It has now increased to four million in 2022. We are going backwards not forwards.

The net annual migration of 0.5 million extra means 125,000 extra to come out of the 300,000 Michael Gove speaks of!

HMG needs to be honest with poorer people and say you will never have a house! By the time HMG has built them then your children will be adults and flown the nest!

Mr F Wilson 454 letters indeed that’s nearly as many pages as landlords Certificate’s we require.

I did a SAR request for six specific houses in Maidstone and the response was I had written just one letter in five years!

A few years back they wrote to say I had not written one letter in two years to the Council in response to 1170 letters sent by the Council.

Michael Foley writes East Europeans are generally very good living people well brought up, a good Culture really.

That is my usual findings also.

However, if you have four men sharing read for it, Cannabis Factory!

Andrew Townshend

I've had East European tenants and have found them to be better than many British tenants.

That is precisely what I have found also!

A couple from Eastern Europe with two small children look after the house brilliantly!