Buy-to-let property supremo sends out eviction notices to 200 tennants

[pigeon]

Buy-to-let pin up couple Fergus and Judith Wilson have, as the thread title says sent out eviction notices to 200 tenants.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/04/buy-to-let-landlord-evicts-housing-benefit-tenants

 

The couple who own about a 1,000 properties in the Kent area claim that "Rents have gone north, and benefit levels south". Hence their decision.

 

I'm aware that although this story will have some forummers 'getting a semi' at the thought of owning that much property (if you haven't got a semi from looking at their picture); there is a wider social issue of too little social housing, and the danger of few people allowed to have too much property. That is, if other landlords make the same decision as the Wilsons; what about their tenants?

 

CANT FAULT EM THEY RUN A BUSINESS NOT A CHARITY

[Mr Clowning]

 

CANT FAULT EM THEY RUN A BUSINESS NOT A CHARITY

 

You can do something about that, if the CAPS key is stuck on then you should go to the control panel, select keyboards (region and keyboards) then click the advanced properties and select to use the shift key.

 

 

Of course you could just be feeling like shouting your point across in which case please ignore my advice

[Cyclone]

 

CANT FAULT EM THEY RUN A BUSINESS NOT A CHARITY

 

So you don't mind people running a business for profit, unless they're solicitors, who should work for free.

[Mr Clowning]

For those who don't get Cyclones comment.

 

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10253717&postcount=1

 

You can't have it all ways pigeon.

[I1L2T3]

The pathfinder programme started by the last Labour government, which was supposed to demolish & replace social housing got cancelled after the demolition phase, in 2011, so they weren't rebuilt. It's a problem that has been building for 25 years+, since they started the sell off of council houses. You can't just blame the current government, but they've made it much worse with the cuts to housing benefit & rebuilding. Added to that it's harder for builders & property developers to get credit to build new homes now, so the private sector is failing too.

 

I don't just blame the current government but clearly they have created a crisis out of what was already a very delicate situation.

[Mr Clowning]

I blame them in the respect that they don't have a plan to start a social housing building scheme that would create jobs and give a much needed boost to housing stock.

 

But that would go against the grain because it would counter act there policies that inflate house prices and make for an artificial inflated market price.

 

Lets not forget that it was a Thatcher Government that brought in the right to buy but put a stop on local councils reinvesting the money from housing stock sales into new builds.

 

Its not about protecting people like this as much as it is about protecting the banks from their investments and mortgages. We really need more social housing but they will never do it as it will drive down house prices and take wealth off the wealthy and devalue banks.

[truman]

I blame them in the respect that they don't have a plan to start a social housing building scheme that would create jobs and give a much needed boost to housing stock.

 

But that would go against the grain because it would counter act there policies that inflate house prices and make for an artificial inflated market price.

 

Lets not forget that it was a Thatcher Government that brought in the right to buy but put a stop on local councils reinvesting the money from housing stock sales into new builds.

 

Its not about protecting people like this as much as it is about protecting the banks from their investments and mortgages. We really need more social housing but they will never do it as it will drive down house prices and take wealth off the wealthy and devalue banks.

 

If it was such a bad idea why didn't Labour revoke it during the 13 years they were in power..? Genuine question..

[Mr Clowning]

For the same reason, because we rely on a banking system to fund the economy. Once the industry was dilapidated they had to artificially inflate the housing market the market to keep the country solvent. (that's my opinion anyhow)

 

---------- Post added 07-01-2014 at 10:47 ----------

 

In fact Labour took it too far and created a housing bubble that was unsustainable, but what can you do if that's what's keeping us afloat ?

[lotar]

There aren't enough houses for everyone to do it... and it wouldn't be a very successful enterprise if they did.

 

I meant.. any succesful business takes hard work, money and risks.. if it was easy everyone would be rich, if people dont fancy this then stay as they are, buy they cant moan about the success stories can they..

[salsafan]

Stories like this make me sick. So basically, two property tycoons actually play the system so well such that they are indeed holding the country hostage too on the housing stock ? No wonder there are often housing shortage always.

 

Maybe there should be a landlord tax instead.

 

Daniel Burton, 25, claims to be making £35,000 profit every month from his Rent the Rented business scheme, just a few years after dropping out of the London School of Economics. He sublets 200 rooms across the capital, bringing in rent of nearly £2m a year.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jun/28/new-class-landlords-profiting-generation-rent

 

This is a smart guy. Hostile and harsh, but business smart indeed ! No wonder even the government doesn't actually intervene, and is fighting this kind of housing shortage. This is shocking indeed. I thought that sub-letting was illegal.

 

Meanwhile, the scale of some private landlords' property empires is staggering. Kevin Green in south Wales is challenging Fergus Wilson in Kent as Britain's biggest buy-to-let landlord, having bought 672 homes around Swansea and Llanelli since 2000, with plans to take the total to 1,000.

So this guy saved Wales when the housing market dropped, or that the price of property dropped so low such that this is not possible any more? I find it so odd.

 

Letting agents have also joined the ranks of the rental multimillionaires. Countrywide, Britain's biggest estate agency, makes far more money from lettings (£16.3m profit in 2012, up 49% on the previous year) than from selling houses (£4.4m, down 35% on the year before).

I knew of this but this is crazy !

 

I like to see THIS challenged in Human Right's Law, about how people are being treated in the rental world. i.e. maybe there needs to be a standard shared facilities and this made into a law or other. Rather than to cram so many people into a single house, and have lower than standard living conditions which drives people nuts. Even though I am also a home owner, I had to live like a mouse when I had to share with so many other people who were also working professionals too, in such bad conditions. It is worst than those capsule hotels which are mentioned in Japan for those single working professionals who cannot afford to get onto the property market and hence they live in such shameful conditions, than to go back home and stay with parents.

 

This is SO bad.

 

"Potentially, there's a lot of money to be made. I sublet a room in the house I was in at uni after someone moved out and then started subletting friends' rooms elsewhere when people moved on," says Burton. "In summer 2010, I took over a landlord's property in Euston and let the rooms individually. After that I kept going – renting properties from landlords, then renting out rooms on an individual basis." He offers landlords a commercial agreement, guaranteeing the rent, while new tenants are put on a "licence" rather than a conventional assured shorthold tenancy. These are controversial in the lettings market, as they treat tenancies more like short-term holiday lets, making it easier to evict.

 

This is SO sick. So it means that they can kick out the person at any point in time. As the person is not on a legal shorthold tenancy. No wonder ! This is truly unethical as a business.

 

 

This article is SO sick. I realised that it means that these "landlord" is actually making use of those who claim benefits and make use of the social system to make their own money instead basically. Rather than helping or letting these housing stock go, and therefore affect the market price. So this is quite clever on their side, as this means that they found the loophole basically. I wonder just how many people in this country actually claim benefits, to let the true figures show on social spending alone. Cos basically, in another simple way to look at this, this man is also no different in making money out of the government itself ! Just like those middleman company who tries to get people into jobs but doesn't and can't.

Edited February 4, 2014 by salsafan