Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/17/britains-nastiest-landlord-r.html
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Christ what an asshole.
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"It is not the colour of their skin, but the smell of the curry.
And a “curry” hater too. Needs a proper boot up his ass…
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This guy was way ahead on this trend – they’re nothing but crooks.
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Putting the K_nt in Kent
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I should rent apartment from him for my cooking experiments.
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I understand that strong smells coming from some apartments can be offensive to others. I want to say that were are some cities that have regulations on cooking odors being a nuisance. However i find that it problematic since certain regional foods require ingredients that will inherently smell a certain way and policing what they can and can’t cook doesn’t look good.
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I like curry just fine, I cooked a Malaysian style curry fish last night. But it does leave an odor if you cook it every day. I used to live near a part of Houston that had a high proportion of people of south asian descent (Indian, Pakistani, etc.). Great neighbors, but the local real estate agents (of all races) knew that some houses couldn’t be resold to someone who wasn’t also south asian. Some of my south asian friends actually had outdoor kitchens installed so they could preserve the value of their homes. Curry smell can be difficult to remove, even after replacing carpets and repainting.
I won’t defend this guy because of the obvious racism, but I can understand his reasons on the curry issue. I can’t imagine any reason to defend the domestic violence one, though.
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Of course he has one -
But Wilson claims the alleged ban has been taken out of context. He said: “I’m not saying no battered wives or zero-hours contracts. What I’m saying is that no one will guarantee the rent of people on zero-hours contracts.
“If you can find someone to be a guarantor, they can then sub-let to a battered wife. We’re just saying we don’t take them because they must have a rent guarantee as part of the landlord’s insurance demanded by the mortgage companies.”
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I don’t see the distinction between policing smells and policing noise.
Both noise and persistent smells (whether of curry or fermented fish, certain cheeses, badly maintained septic tanks, etc.) can be extremely distressing.
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For sure i’m not disagreeing, but i do find it worrisome that some cultures would be more impacted than others. I find that unfortunate, and the fact that some racist landlords would use that as an excuse or premise to discriminate further complicates the matter.
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Meat smells a lot when you cook it too. Some of my gringo friends actually have outdoor cooking grills so they can cook it without smelling up the house. (Now if only they’d learn to use less lighter fluid, so I don’t have to close my windows when the downstairs neighbors fire up the BBQ petroleum products.)
At least it’s not as bad as tobacco smoke - back in the 80s, there was one house we liked but couldn’t buy because the previous owner had been a cigar smoker. Don’t know if this racist landlord bans smoking or just curry.
And while Britain’s no longer feudal, so the landlord’s liege lord can’t tell him to knock off the racism if he wants to keep using the land, this guy probably protects his assets by using a corporation, which is a favor from the government, and in return it can tell him not to run his business that way.
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Quick! Let’s import this guy into the US immediately to be a new Trump advisor. He’s clearly qualified.
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Since he’s proud about judging people on their appearance, I’ll make an exception to my normal rule and say that this scumbag looks exactly how you’d imagine he’d look.
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Interesting. It took only a few moments for your ideas to stink.
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What if I don’t like the smell of beef? Can I forbid burgers and steak? Or is it just the smells of ‘other’ cultures? How about cheese?
Banning certain foods is bullshit. People need to grow up and accept a little diversity in their lives, for fuck’s sake.
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“It’s not racist—it’s just that those people are all smelly” is a smidge racist.
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Every year or so I do a big cauldron of caramelized onion, and another of roasted garlic, for freezing. Stinks up the place reeeeeeeeal nice. But I don’t do it every day. I can see the neighbours complaining if I did.
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