Fergus Wilson Panorama documentary – now available on iPlayer

Oh god, he does not seem to be the best ambassador for landlords..

Reply to the comment left by steve p at 14/03/2019 - 22:18
Perhaps not, but the thrust of the programme is to, essentially, say ‘how dare he ‘cash in’ [he’s in his 70s mind] and issue 90 eviction notices.

What do they want….to force him to continue forever??

I hope he will be making the point that when a landlord like him wants to retire, it is no longer possible to find a willing landlord to buy his business as a going concern because government policy has destroyed incentives to invest. So, the only way he can sell many of his properties is with vacant possession.

The BBC will twist it and edit it to make him into a demon. It has no balance when it comes to the PRS.

"Twist and Edit it"....... I don't think the Beeb will need to. Just look at the appearance of the man!! It conjures up every inch a Victoria Rackman landlord if I d never seen or heard of Charles Dickens.
Please do us a favour, tell me this is not the best we can turn out on a National TV debate? I cant stop laughing.
Is he going to mumble "Ger aawf muy laarnd".

Reply to the comment left by Munro at 15/03/2019 - 11:29
He could be the world’s worst person, but the programme synopsis is: “Fergus Wilson is evicting 90 families because he wants to cash-in on his property empire, with every resident in one street in Kent possibly having to leave their home.” Before it’s even started they are twisting the truth…he wants to retire. I think we all would want to by his age. Is it even possible for him to get out/sell without ‘cashing-in’ or is profit just the natural course of a successful business? What would they rather…he has to retire without extracting his money? Bloody idiots!

just love it Munro, looks are everything. Better if I sat there in my wheelchair trying to use both hands to drink a cup of tea. Better if Mark did it. He looks smooth more James Bond than a landlord. Sorry I did not realise landlord had to look a certain way.

I just "googled" him after my possibly harsh comment. He owns around a 1,000 BTL properties, has a very bad reputation, not just from the left wing broadsheets, but the local rags in Kent, too.
Some convictions for breaches and/or total avoidance of local Council requirements and/or regulations.
A few comments on the eviction of disabled, pregnant tenants and some issues with Race/Religion.
As for myself, this person and his actions are not who or what I feel to be representative of myself and my meager rental business of just 5 properties.
I feel he makes a laughing stock out of us, alters the public impression of the average PRS landlord, much in the same way as clasaing a Factory-ship in the same way as a line-fisherman for the causes of Tuna depletion in the Oceans.

Guess thats why BBC and Panorama invited him on, to make further mockery out of us. No smoke without fire, I d say.

The programme is no doubt already packaged, so there is little point in speculating. Fergus clearly doesn't need me to defend him, but I don't find it at all helpful for landlords in this forum to be making personal attacks on him or other landlords, especially one who is obviously successful (90+ or even 1000+ properties).
Compared to local authorities in the news for unsafe temporary housing, they aren't saying he is a rogue landlord, just controversial, so that means getting into the headlines AND on Panorama (who else on this forum can say that?).

Maybe this is the best chance ever of getting some of our opinions and perspectives across to the public and maybe some politicians (although they will still be busy with Brexit).
Private landlords can potentially use this programme to write to their MPs, using Fergus' case as an example of "politicians should be careful of what they wish for": 90+ evictions means at least 90+ households were safely housed for a long time (maybe 10 times that over the years), and 90+ new households will move in, in due course.
And by the way, serving eviction notices does not necessarily mean there will be 90+ homeless households. Some will be allowed/invited to stay on by new investor owners. Others will have owner-occupiers, glad of a new home. This is precisely the "churn" that was guaranteed to result from the Osborne policy of squeezing private landlords. Notice that it changes some of the occupants, but not the number of houses., and so has not helped the overall housing shortage.
It's only the fact that Fergus' portfolio is much larger than most that brings it (and him) to media attention. And hopefully to politicians' attention, if they can finally drag themselves away from their self-inflicted Brexit fiasco.
I look forward to the show on Monday.

So when will the gov print the legislation that all PRS landlords now have to transfer their portfolio to the state on retirement? At a heavy discount of course. Probably a month after this programme. First the rent controls will come in, and puppet Kahn will have that soon for sure.

The BBC is probably getting back-handers from the construction industry, and as they regularly have lunch with the other lot in office who get the same gifts, the boys-club continues to massage popular psyche and doesn't lift a finger to do the dirty work.