Wilsons not paying mortgages

chucknorris

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Is that paper, brick or fantasy 100 million Chucker?

It is real and it is brick equity, this article from the Guardian had their equity at £100m last July, prices have gone up since then:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jul/07/britains-biggest-buy-to-let-landlords-sell-entire-portfolio

Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of the Wilsons (because of the way that they treated their tenants), but to think that they are in financial trouble is beyond dumb.

EDIT: In order to save time, I'll answer your next question now, before you even ask it, the answer is, no, your right, he hasn't sold his portfolio yet. But he'll probably be making over 4% on his equity (I am, and the Wilsons started buying before I did), so that'll be approaching £5m per annum, what's the rush? Both rents and house prices will be going up, as far as he is concerned its a fair wind that he has in his sails, and the outlook is very good.

wotsthat

I find it strange that the Wilsons are used as a proxy for a typical BTL owner when they're worlds apart. A lettings business with an equity of £100m has almost nothing in common with one which holds a BTL or two.

The Wilsons can crash and burn for all I care but the muppets would still think this was signalling the end of landlordism; it's not - more a reflection on the business acumen of the Wilsons. Even then I fear the media are manipulating me because I don't know what a normal rate of complaint or legal compliance issue is for any other company of such a size.

wotsthat

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Gee. I hope they're alright.

The tenants being evicted?

Because anyone choosing the Wilsons as a landlord must have loads of options right?

PasturesNew

They never built any new houses did they ... at least the dominant landlord in my region does new builds and actively targets the !!!!less/DSS ... although he also managed to achieve turning a "nice area" into a drugs-ridden hellhole area by all accounts. What used to be genteel and sought after became a little run down and was hoovered up and dragged lower.

But, the son who inherited that has tried to clean up the act and actively build new stuff.

This pair just gobbled up what was already on the table.

patman99

If you ever watched 'Benefits Tenants' on C4 then you will know that a LL can get a higher rent for a benefit tenant than for a worker looking for a private rental property.

This is down to the Tories setting a rent cap for those on HB which the LLs now see as the 'standard' rent.
In fact, this capping has created a whole new business model not previously considered worthwhile whilst at the same time removing properties from the private rental market as far as the working person is concerned.

ukcarper

patman99 wrote: »

If you ever watched 'Benefits Tenants' on C4 then you will know that a LL can get a higher rent for a benefit tenant than for a worker looking for a private rental property.

This is down to the Tories setting a rent cap for those on HB which the LLs now see as the 'standard' rent.
In fact, this capping has created a whole new business model not previously considered worthwhile whilst at the same time removing properties from the private rental market as far as the working person is concerned.

I suppose it depends where you are where I am LHA for a 3 bed is £913 while the cheapest property on rightmove is £950 and the next cheapest is £1050.

PasturesNew

patman99 wrote: »

... LL can get a higher rent for a benefit tenant than for a worker looking for a private rental property...

ukcarper wrote: »

I suppose it depends where you are where I am LHA for a 3 bed is £913 while the cheapest property on rightmove is £950 and the next cheapest is £1050.

I was going to say this. What the LHA does is "level" the rents across a very broad area. Where I am right now, the area is about 20 miles wide, if not even larger. When one set amount is paid across the area, it removes the cheap houses from the market as the LLs increase the rent to be the LHA rate. The 'nicer areas' (and normal areas) tend to have rents higher than the LHA rate.

For somebody who would've been seeking the cheaper rents in the past this has had the effect of raising rents - and, you go out to work each day only to see people who don't bother to work getting nicer places than you can afford as you're still trying to find places cheaper than the LHA rate.

The house I am sitting in right now could be rented privately for £800/month, but the LHA rate is £600/month.

LHA instead of being the bottom 1/3rd price, becomes the bottom price pretty quickly.

stator

Newspapers don't really know how much money anyone has. They could be up to their eyeballs in debt for all anyone knows.

PasturesNew

stator wrote: »

Newspapers don't really know how much money anyone has. They could be up to their eyeballs in debt for all anyone knows.

I don't know how they operate .... if they were a Ltd company I'm sure somebody would have posted their accounts details at some point and I've never seen that happen.... so maybe it's all just in their names, as partners/sole traders.

Or maybe they have some complicated offshore investment company / whatever people with money seem to do.

Had a quick google and found this: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/904492268

chewmylegoff

patman99 wrote: »

If you ever watched 'Benefits Tenants' on C4 then you will know that a LL can get a higher rent for a benefit tenant than for a worker looking for a private rental property.

This is down to the Tories setting a rent cap for those on HB which the LLs now see as the 'standard' rent.
In fact, this capping has created a whole new business model not previously considered worthwhile whilst at the same time removing properties from the private rental market as far as the working person is concerned.

There has always been a maximum amount that could be claimed and the business model you refer to (LL's renting to benefit claimants and charging them the max amount that they could claim in housing benefit) has existed for as long as housing benefit has.