Fergus Wilson and his wife Judith are a British couple who, until December 2015, were among the UK's largest buy-to-let investors. As of 2013, they owned nearly 1,000 two- and three-bedroom properties around Ashford and Maidstone in Kent. They were listed at #453 on The Sunday Times "rich list", with a fortune of £180 million. However, that fortune related to the value of their properties at the peak and did not take account of any mortgage debt. The exact number of properties they owned is uncertain, but in 2007 a Daily Mail article stated that they owned 707 properties. Mr Wilson was keen to suggest that they owned 1,000, however. In December 2015, they claimed to have sold their entire portfolio to a consortium of overseas investors for around £250 million.
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Background
Fergus and Judith Wilson are both former maths teachers.
Property investment
The couple, already home-owners, began buying houses when prices were low in the early 1990s. They had previously claimed that house prices would never stop rising, and announced the 'Judith Wilson Investment Property Bond', which, based on claims that the UK property market doubled in value every seven years, they claimed would do likewise. It is not known whether this was ever launched.
The couple relied heavily on leverage to build their portfolio, buying only new-build houses and remortgaging them as soon as prices went up, using the profits to finance further purchases.
In late 2008, with the nationalisation of Bradford and Bingley, which had provided them with most of their finance, the couple announced, contrary to previous statements, that they would begin selling some of their portfolio, with 18 houses going on sale at the end of their fixed-rate term in March 2009, and 50 further houses to follow.
In September 2009 it was reported in The Times that they planned to sell their entire portfolio. It was subsequently revealed that the couple were in arrears on their mortgage payments to the amount of £350,000.
In January 2014 Fergus Wilson sent eviction notices to every tenant that received housing benefit and alerted letting agents that he would no longer accept tenants who require housing benefit. This amounted to at least 200 evictions.
Legal matters
Also in 2008, Fergus Wilson was found guilty of using a mobile phone while driving and fined £565 and had his licence endorsed with three points. He had pleaded not guilty and claimed that he had been singing into a drinks carton that he was holding to the side of his head.
On 24 August 2009, Judith Wilson had a court case thrown out by the judge. Wilson had demanded £3,000 for a new bathroom suite from a tenant who had damaged a cistern lid. The tenant had offered to replace the lid. In a written judgment, Judge Christopher Cagney branded the claim "exaggerated", and said he "had doubts" that work to replace the bathroom suite would ever be carried out.
At the time of writing (29 August 2013) the Wilsons have not paid £3000 court costs awarded to a gas engineer after they summonsed him for issuing an 'At Risk' notice on a flue at one of their properties that was dangerous and not in line with British Standards. They had tried to claim £5000 from him for making the property unrentable.
In 2014, Fergus Wilson was found guilty of assaulting an estate agent.
Outside property
The couple once planned a chain of discount dentists staffed by low-cost Eastern European dentists but this does not appear to have come to fruition.
The couple are racehorse owners, an activity that earned them some criticism as they persistently entered 'no-hoper', low-quality racehorses in top races - such as their entry of the 'worst racehorse in history' into the Epsom Derby, as well as similar entries in the Gold Cup, Grand National and Champion Hurdle.
Fergus Wilson initially proposed to stand as an independent candidate in the 2012 elections for the Police and Crime Commissioner of Kent Police, but in the end did not stand. He has told Channel 4 News on August 3, 2015 that he intends to stand for Police and Crime Commissioner in Kent in 2016, but newspaper reports suggest that he is ineligible to stand due to his assault conviction
On April 7, 2016 Fergus Wilson's nomination for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner was rejected by the Returning Officer
On January 7, 2017 Fergus Wilson announced that he would no longer accept victims of domestic claiming that victims of domestic violence often have partners ruin his properties, he also banned plumbers claiming they would often overprice quotes.