Negatives of living next door to HMO's

[LaurieFairyCake]

Rather desperately looking for a house and am now considering all options even a mid terrace where both sides look to be hmo's.

It's a very nice road in a very nice area so location really good.

[mistressploppy]

Parking?

[LaurieFairyCake]

Yes, there's two at the front plus a garage - both sides have converted their garages into living spaces, we'd do the same I expect.

They're modern townhouses

[Pantone363]

HMO?

[LaurieFairyCake]

Multiple occupancy households - not sure what it actually stands for

[wonkylegs]

Often HMOs are let to students or young adults - noise is more likely to be an issue. Parties/ social gatherings + just the sheer no of adults coming and going.
Parking

[Trills]

Do you mean a "proper" lots-of-people-who-don't-necessarily-know-each-other HMO, or do you just mean 3 or 4 people sharing?

[NotGoodNotBad]

Parking and noise. In particular, compared to a family, a group of single adults are more likely to have their own televisions, their own stereos, overnight visitors (more cars and noise), more parties, and to have less concern for their neighbours as they aren't usually long-term residents and don't care if they fall out. They are also likely to be under 30 do plenty of socialising both in the house and out (coming and going late at night). They may not bother to weed their garden either.

Of course, the telly/stereo thing can apply to families these days too, and all the above is a generalisation - the residents might be perfectly quiet people. And on the plus side, if they are awful they might move out in a year or too - less likely to happen with problem families.

[Trills]

But compared to a family a group of single adults is less likely to have babies crying at night or children playing loudly in the garden or watching TV loudly early in the mornings.

It's very hard to make generalisations. If you like the house and the area and the neighbours are not obviously unpleasant in ways that you can see, then go for it. You don't know who will be living there in a year's time, but that's true of all houses.

They may not bother to weed their garden either.
Not sure how this will affect the neighbours?

[NotGoodNotBad]

They may not bother to weed their garden either.
Not sure how this will affect the neighbours?

See other threads on 6ft weeds in neighbouring gardens and what to do about them!

[Bonquers]

We lived next to one. DON'T DO IT!! Horrific, drugs, parties, noise, litter, drunkeness, no gardeining, no up keep , fag smoke coming through.

Avoid. Like the bloody plague!!

[OddBoots]

If you buy a place without HMO neighbours there's the risk it will become one (happened to us) but it really depends on how the place is run.

Maybe spends a week (inc weekend) checking around at different times of day to see about traffic and noise and check from the upstairs windows of your maybe house too see how the gardens look.

[Barbabeau]

Noise and the risk of having new horrible neighbours every 6-12 months. I've lived in a studentville HMO area and would not do it again.

[Lavenderandroses]

No no no no. Do not even think about it.

[Catnipbush]

My sister has had a nightmare after moving next door to a HMO. Antisocial behaviour, gangs of troubled youths hanging around, the list goes on and on. Save yourself from making the same mistake and walk away.

[anniemay123]

What did you do in the end Laurie? We're in a similar position. Saw a house, loved it. Went back a few days later to speak to neighbours and they said it was very studenty. Neighbours on both sides are students.....not sure what to do :(

[Justalittlebitblondie]

Just don't do it please.... I lived in what I thought was my dream house when I saw it but after the second police drugs raid it completely lost any shine ??

[chrome100]

We live in a student area with serveral neighbouring HMOs. Yes, there's litter and noise but to be honest I'd rather have that than crying babies and shrieking kids. We've only had cause to complaint one year when the noise was just ridiculous but every other year it's been fine.

[HelenF350]

Depends on the type of hmo. Up here there are lots of hmos let to professionals that work here during the week and go home at the weekend. They are usually fine. Students or young adults may be different but I've lived next to a student hmo with no problems. Hmos do tend to have a high tenant turnover though so chances are occupants will regularly change.

[IKnowRight]

We lived next door to a HMO, they were they other half of our semi iyswim. About half the houses in the street were HMO's. When we bought the house, the % of houses owned by landlords and rented out was much the same as it was 10 yrs later however in 2000 it was to families and by 2010 it was to large groups of factory workers who for the most part from Eastern Europe.

Problems - noise, people coming and going at all hours due to a large amount of shift workers. Didn't give a shit about rubbish blowing round, the state of the gardens, the number of cars parked pretty much everywhere (occasionally across the end of our drive), loud drunken conversations at all hours of the day and night.

DH once had to go next door at 1am as a group of 5 men were throwing a vodka and card playing party in the garage and making a ridiculous amount of noise, no-one could sleep. One house had a couple of blokes who fixed cars in their drive - car parts all over the place and banging until late on summer evenings until it got dark. Next door had a grandchild that would come and kick footballs against the dividing wall until really late at night.

The individual people were lovely, but as a large % of the street's population were single shift workers here to earn money and have a good time, it became unbearable. We sold up and moved when our next door neighbour on the other side converted their garage to a bedroom, so they could move more people in. They did a really shit job on the build as well, the wall backed on to our garden and it looked a right mess.

I've lived in student houses myself, and would never have dreamed of being so disruptive. We didn't look after the garden particularly well though and I can see now how that would bother the people living around us.

Avoid avoid avoid. Sorry.

[Fingeronthebutton]

Walk away now. There lies madness. Seriously, these houses are hell holes.
My friend is a maintenance man for these properties. The stories he tells me, with what he has to deal with would make your hair curl.

[DanM69]

Erm, presumably Households of Multiple Occupancy…?

[GasPanic]

There is a chance they will be full of mostly working people and it will be fine.

There is also a chance they will be party houses.

I really wouldn't do it.

[Geneticsbunny]

It is 95% student HMOs where I live and they are mostly fine with a blip around Freshers week and graduation week.

Burglaries go up in uni holidays but our house has never been affected as it obviously has people in it.

[chrome100]

Most of the houses on my street are HMOs, there's only a few of us who own and are long term residents. Doesn't bother me at all, sometimes parking is a hassle but it's not the end of the world if you have to walk a bit further.

[Lovethatforyouhun]

Absolute HELL! And this is when I was young and would go out all night regularly!!!

1. rubbish strewn in road as they couldnt put it in wheelies properly. Including sanitary wear blown outside my door.
2. parties every week, i could hear the lyrics of each rap song and could sing along with my neighbours “you know very well who you are, don’t let them hold you down reach for the stars!” 😏
3. no where to park
4. just as you trained them on how to be decent neighbours, new ones would move in.

we did have thin walls though!