A UK LANDLORD who, when listing his requirements for potential tenants said “no coloured people”, has defended his comments saying that he’d do the same thing again.
In an email seen by The Sun newspaper, buy-to-let landlord Fergus Wilson issued the directive to letting agents Evolution, who handle some of his properties.
Wilson said: “No coloured people because of the curry smell at the end of the tenancy”.
He said that he finds it hard to rent out or sell properties to white British people after having Asian tenants.
Wilson said that he does not apologise for the comments, and “faced with the same circumstances, [he] would do it again”.
To be honest, we’re getting overloaded with coloured people. It is a problem with certain types of coloured people – those who consume curry – it sticks to the carpet.
He said he was “wary” of letting to Indians after losing out more than £12,000 in rent and paying re-carpeting costs because one of the properties smelled of curry.
“I have said I will not be taking Asian, and Pakistani and Indian people generally where the nationality consumes a lot of curry,” Wilson said.
The landlord said that while some had called it racist, he claimed to have received a lot of support from people on the matter.
While he said he “appreciates you have such things as British Asians”, a white person would not want to buy a house that smelled like curry, Wilson added.
The UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission will investigate the matter, the Guardian reports, as his actions were “disgusting” and “unlawful” according to its chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath.
She said: “We will investigate and will be asking Mr Wilson to explain his actions. Unless we are satisfied that he will not commit unlawful acts in the future we will take legal action.”
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