To accept a huge loss on my house

Three up, three down…
Could mean there are bedrooms without windows?

Councils don't house illegal immigrants. How would people who don't exist on paper access public funds?

I wonder if he has a contract with the council to house illegal immigrants as this is incredibly lucrative and councils are struggling to find enough places to house them all.
this may be why they are hanging around and not allowed to work.
What a nightmare.

I wouldn't draw this conclusion. I have a friend who had a string of properties where each one was financed using the profits from the last, taking out a mortgage on each. It's a recognised business model.

It is just the fact it is one that puts people off buying next door. A well run HMO should not present a problem to anyone. However, there could be a lot of comings and goings.

Can you turn yours into a HMO and go and rent somewhere else?

If there were any higher offers he couldn`t get that, "market value" is just what someone is willing (and able) to pay for it.

Because of all the clobbering of private landlords by successive governments, the only way to make any money on a new BTL is by doing HMO, the more tenants the better (financially speaking)
Following what some other responders have said, make the council's life hell. Report every infringement however minor and demand a response/follow up.
My brother lived opposite a council run car park which was ungated and every Friday and Saturday night the local boys would use it as a gathering point to show off their cars and do donuts, races etc. He offered to pay for a barrier but the council said they didn't want to have to pay someone to open and close it at the start and end of each day. Eventually he paid a guy to park up in a van and take down number plates and document/film offences (such as illegal exhausts dangerous driving etc). Then every Monday morning he'd write it all up and submit reports to the police and the council.
Eventually it became such a joke that the police leaned on the council to put a barrier on the car park and hey presto the problem went away (to another council car park in the town).
Be a pain in the backside and you may, just may get your way!! Good luck.

Agree you don’t want to be living next to an HMO. There’s one in my mums road and it stinks of weed, loads of blokes hanging about outside and the rubbish is horrendous.

It doesn’t help you sell op, but if it’s affected the value I believe you can request you house is revalued for council tax to try and get it dropped down a band. I’m aware of a road where several houses took this option and it seemed to galvanise the council who removed the licence or took enforcement action.

But it might be simpler to see if the landlord wants to buy yours as well.

There's rules about that everywhere. Also about community consultations within the planning process.

I blame low interest rates.

AirBnB would be better.

My grandparents live next door to one. It's a tiny terraced house that somehow houses 4 people. It's noisy, always people coming and going, smells of cannabis, police constantly there, noise all through the night.. it used to be a street full of families, they've been there for decades, and this is the second HMO in the last 12 months that's popped up, with a third currently being created further down. It's ruining the street.

The clues in the title🙄

I said this months ago. Some people will be begging for the hotels soon.

This won't be it. She said all men, standing smoking outside, filthy. Inference. Critical thinking. We are living 1984 thanks to sheep like this.

I'm so sorry OP, this sounds terribly unfair.

Sadly, as its outside your control, yes I understand you wanting to just get out.

If its any consolation I was swindled out of a redundancy payment of £190k. I walked away because life is too short to let money drive you insane.

I try not to get resentful by telling myself the money was never mine.

Is it possible to challenge the council on this? As this is vile someone losing hundreds of thousands of hard earned money.

He'd want it cheap not market value

A shared house 30 years ago would have a different demographic to the HMO of today.

You're welcome.

Perfect solution, this single mum should just keep reporting and challenging those men with dubious backgrounds and anti social behaviour.

As you undoubtedly would. You non-racist, liberal, bless your dear bleeding superior white saviour heart. This is what you do, every day. While not seeing cultures or patterns. All you see is people, men, all men.

You don't have to take the estate agent's figure of 100k as gospel. Check with other estate agents. Even then you still don't have to take their figures as gospel. You might instead decide - as a first step to test the market - to put up for sale at 50k less. Estate agents can say a lot of things. Be cautious about running with the first thing they tell you.

You may have other options than the estate agent open market route. Posters have suggested the next door owner or public auction.

Other potential buyers you might approach directly could include the local authority housing department, or a university if you have one near you. Maybe a health authority or large teaching hospital might be looking for accommodation for students or staff.

There are also people who advertise that they buy any property. This would involve a discounted price for hard to sell properties or just wanting a quick hassle free sale but again it would probably involve 50k rather than 100. However you need to be careful of who you are dealing with. I've heard of such people offering a price and then lowering at the last minute when contract about to be signed.

Another option is keeping it and renting it out yourself but the viability of doing this depends on your financial situation and whether you could manage that and still buy a new place for yourself.

Would it be allowed for an estate agent to handle the valuation and sale of a property they themselves were buying? That would be wide open to a conflict of interest.

I think you would be as well to get another estate agents opinion. To me it sounds like he might be trying to con you out of a lot of money. I do not think house prices will be as affected being near an HMO to lose so much money. Your agent may even be trying to buy the place himself at as low cost as he can and could then sell it on for a greater amount. I am a bit cynical at times about estate agents but sometimes they can't be trusted.

Ah that's good news for you have the option to go through planning enforcement.

If you do you can't complain r.e. price it has to be i.e. extra noise, poor quality accommodation etc.

I know my council didn't check planning permission before granting licences.