AIBU to refuse a tenant's vulnerable guest staying in my HMO?

Don't blame you, OP, although council often offer just a sleeping bag and tent so can see why she wants to stay.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/emergency_housing_from_the_council/how_to_get_emergency_housing

If they are able, your tenant could help his friend make a homelessness application. Or find a local homelessness charity that may have an outreach team to help advocate with the council.

Well I don’t have a spare room. And nor am I suggesting OP risks her income and a criminal prosecution for an unlicensed HMO.

Do you not feel bad about changing the character of the street where you’ve placed the HMO with council tenants?

edit to add have lived in social housing and even homeless hostel growing up so I’m not being snobby about it. Just personal experience from 4 HMOs going up near my current house all with single tenants.

We do. I have my son's friend here atm.

HMOs in my local area have ruined my life. Depression, anxiety due to antisocial behaviour and people with drug issues etc. Threatened, witnessed a stabbing, it’s awful. There are 3 HMOs opposite me and one a few doors away. I hate them.

We are landlords but only rent to people on a low income/benefits. We have 2 properties at the mo. One HMO, one house. HMO mostly has single homeless people l, house has single parent and 3 kids (one disabled). That family got the place through the council waiting list but it is officially temporary. They can stay as long as they want though.

If the police are insisting you let her in and the advice she’s apparently obtained is that you need to evict her, that would suggest she’s not being totally honest whilst engaging with services and she’s telling them she actually lives there. This won’t do her any favours in the long term as they obviously aren’t treating her like a homeless person with nowhere to go.

I would tell the tenant that if he lets her in again I would be unfortunately taking action to evict him. I lived in a HMO straight out of uni and it was hell on earth. It was supposed to be working professionals who wanted a quiet lifestyle only but we had one house mate who would let anyone in and they obviously had issues with drugs and alcohol, they brought all kinds of trouble to the door. It made my mental health awful. I left as soon as I could. The police coming to the door to insist the tenant let her in after everyone had already complained about her being there would have really done me in. You sound like a decent proactive landlord and you have to think about your actual tenants here.

If they needed to, yeah. I'd try and get them on the books through benefits at some point if it was possible. If not, oh well. My principles are important to me.

i care about humans too. However i also care about the law and my legal responsibilities, as im sure the op does and if i were her i’d think about my moral responsibilities ie the woman is causing damage to my property and upsetting people.

So i would expect the council, who have a legitimate responsibility to house her, to step up and get on with it instead of trying to pass the buck elsewhere.

i would issue the tenant in question with notice in writing. but (verbally only) tell him if he gets her to leave and not let her in again EVER AGAIN NOT EVEN TO USE THE LOO ETC you will rescind it in writing. That you do not want him out at this stage and this strategy is a means to an end.

That way he can show her and his so called pals who are telling him to keep her there (likely so they don’t have to deal with her, presumably thats where she stayed when she left for five days or whatever it was and caused mayhem there) that he is now out because of her. He may choose to bundle her out the door. i know i would. or both could attend the council as homeless due to the eviction letter. During which time you could change the locks and not let her in again.

@VointofPiew are you a private landlord? Private landlords are a big part of the housing problem in this country, putting up rent costs, and removing properties from the potential social housing pool. Would it not be better if you gave your house to the council?

Why dont any of them live in your actual house then? thats pretty unkind - seems you want to bash others for not housing vulnerable people and yet you dont have any living in your house yourself.

Thats hypocritical.

As PP have suggested- why dont you PM the OP and put this woman up in your house?- it's a perfect solution

OP, you are running a business, your other tenants have the right to expect that the tenancy conditions they abide by are applied to all tenants, and they have a safe place to live.

Whatever is going on in this girl's life, it's not your place to fix. As hard as I would find it, I think you are doing the right thing. And the tenant who keeps letting her stay does need a reminder that he is putting his own tenancy at risk. You could also suggest to your tenant that the next time they come under pressure from friends to let her stay at yours, that they turn it back on the friends and suggests she stays with them.

Because she was drunk/drugged up on the streets I expect and they’d tried to take her “home” rather than to the cells?

@VointofPiew would you allow the homeless friend to live there rent free indefinitely? Wouldn’t that be a bit unfair on the rent-paying tenants? Or can they all live there rent free?

There's a homeless teen in mine. What about yours?

I already have one homeless person staying here right now. Son's friend.

I already help various people in need of housing in one way or the other. Do you?

I do help homeless people in various ways depending on my proximity to the individual. That has i cluded turning a blind eye when a tenant of ours was helping out a homeless mate.

What's the opposite of "first post nails it"?

How can she have loads of stuff there if she was only a temporary visitor - are you sure one of your tenants hasn't sublet to her? Are there any spare/vacant rooms that she could have been occupying? When did you last inspect your HMO?

I think she needs to go .

You should send OP your address and she can pass it on to the vulnerable woman. I'm sure the other tenants would also be very grateful to you.

@VointofPiew then I’d suggest to message OP privately, see if you live in the same area, and then you can accommodate this woman for free. It would be a perfect solution.

Do you have a spare room? Why isn’t there a homeless woman sleeping it in? There are definitely vulnerable women near to you that you could help.