A property expert has slammed a major landlord’s plan to ban tenants employed on zero-hour contracts from renting his properties.
Ajay Jagota, of North East sales and lettings firm KIS, has slammed Wilson’s decision, accusing the landlord of “throwing perfectly good tenants out with the bathwater”.
Around 1.4 million employees in Britain are now on zero-hour contracts – with the number of people employed on them having risen by at least 100% since the start of the economic downturn.
Mr Jagota said: “The rise of zero hour contracts does pose a challenge for landlord and lettings agents alike – if someone’s income isn’t guaranteed they could go from being your best tenants to not making rent from one month to the next.
“But banning them altogether is not so much throwing the baby out with the bathwater as throwing perfectly good tenants out with the bathwater. Self-employed people don’t have guaranteed paid hours either – are they next out the door?”
Landlord Wilson made the news when he announced he would no longer let his homes to people claiming housing benefit, and expressed a preference for Eastern European tenants who he insisted were more reliable rent payers.
In April, Wilson was found guilty of assaulting an estate agent during an argument over a boiler.
Mr Jaygota added: “More and more people are on zero-hour contracts, many working effectively full-time in secure jobs. It’s not just a growing section of society you can’t afford to ignore, but a growing section of society who are unlikely to be able to find mortgages. In other words, the very people you want to be renting too.
“The trick is to make sure you have systems in place to protect you against the risks zero-hour contracts pose to landlords. Take our deposit-free renting system for example. If you let a property with KIS landlord our insurance policy means your rent is guaranteed even if your tenant defaults.
“I think Fergus Wilson is the one who needs to live in the real world, and if he is planning to sell his portfolio and leave the market as rumoured it’s perhaps a sign that there is no place in property for dinosaurs.”
Wilson and his wife and business partner Judith said earlier in the year that they were considering selling their entire housing stock to Chinese investors.
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