Living next to asylum seeker HMO, ask me anything

I didn't put two and two together until just now. There's been a big increase in Mears vans here in my town in the past year and the number of migrants.

Who wants to bet that the Census 2031 won't go ahead because "it's too expensive"?

When I bought my terraced house six years ago, my solicitor who was dealing with the purchase INSISTED that I check there was proper solid walling between my house and next door, because of fire. A fire in one house will run straight through the roof spaces and if there's no walling to hold it up, all the houses can go up in one big inferno.

Fortunately for me I have very solid walling as this is a very old house. But for anyone with shared lofts it might be worth checking your house insurance, because it only takes one person much further down the street to have a minor fire break out upstairs and your house can burn down and your insurance is invalid (because of the 'shared' loft space).

I worked in allocations in a local housing authority and you would not believe how many "desperate" families on the waiting list reject properties. No garden, garden too small for their dog, bedrooms aren't big enough, kitchen is open plan with living room, needs decorating, property isn't a new build. In our LA a good proportion of new build social housing is now apartments and you can hardly give away a 3 bed one because everyone says they want a house. All on the priority emergency list I will add, in temporary accommodation. The sense of entitlement is unreal, and the same people who just refused a offer will swear blind that only foreigners get offers.

Honestly it's one of those things I'm used to as it's common in the houses where I live, but when I think about it it is very weird!
The houses all have high ceilings and narrow stairwells so accessing the lofts is usually precarious so I think because I've so rarely gone into them I haven't thought about it too much. It wouldn't be legal on a newer house due to fire safety obviously.

Not sure I’d like that!

The women get lost along the way and are mostly victims of sex trafficking.

Are you planning to leave?

You can't hate our Gov enough.

Do you not report the noise and mess and obstruction to the council?
I'd be at it every day.

@JapanesePotWeed have you thought about telling your MP all these examples of the ‘repeat’ claims in different countries (not to mention everyone else)? I would think a lot of people (MPs included) are unaware of the goings on you mention. The shared loft bit and being unable to insure, is shocking, too. That HMO approval was based on a different situation and the landlord needs sorting out as well. So many things to unpick.

Yep.
I also found it interesting that the OP has found a Home Office letter in her front garden containing information on a court decision to deport or leave the country willingly.
Very neat.

I’ve now read the UN report critiquing the Home Office processes for evaluating asylum claims.

You have misrepresented the outcome.

The report is critical of the speedy and superficial nature of recent decision making. However the lack of accuracy works in both directions, with genuine asylum claims being rejected as well as false ones being accepted. The primary criticism is with process, not outcome.

However misguided, we all know why Labour began this speedy work: the asylum backlog which had grown hugely during Tory governments had generated large amounts of antisocial and dangerous behaviour. The Tories also imposed severe cuts to the training of staff dealing with asylum claims and ‘streamlined’ the decision making process. Yet staff could not keep up in the absence of resources.

When Labour came to power. the right wing narrative flipped and many people bought into the false idea that they had created the backlog.

The UN report is from March 2026. The Home Office has already accepted the majority of its recommendations and partially accepted the others.

If we want the Home Office to consider asylum cases carefully, we need to give them the resources to do this.

I've worked with plenty of food banks, never known one that wouldnt help out pensioners if asked. They're usually in local churches, community centres, family hubs, not sure why there'd only be one in a city centre? City centre places are more commonly hubs for street homeless people and those with addiction issues so wouldn't be where you'd send a pensioner for a food parcel?

I’m sure a lot of unhoused British families would have been glad to have one of those homes!
I've known British families on the list for social housing pass up one because they wanted a different one. It's not just because these people come from overseas.
Or, in other words, isn't it interesting how we demonise different demographics depending on how the narrative is changed by politicians and the media?

Not shared as such, old terraces often don't have proper barriers between the attics. Ours is the same, we have a clearly defined attic but theres only a low wall and some upright pieces of wood between ours and next door, so we could easily go across the terraces if we were so inclined!

That ends up as a lot more than some pensioners.
At least they can access the local foodbank.
Pensioners I know have mobility problems getting to the foodbank right in the centre of town. When they get there they feel intimidated by all the men hanging around.

MEARS is a huge company and cover literally hundreds of thousands of council properties. Their vans are everywhere .

I haven't lived near one, but I have had 2 female refugee clients who were accommodated in hotels until they got refugee status because there was no other suitable accommodation for women. One was still a child, and was with her mother and siblings. The lone woman was raped by another asylum seeker, the other was scared to leave her room, along with the rest of her family.

This was at least 10 years ago though, so things may have changed. I'd like to think that there is specific, safe accommodation for unaccompanied women and children seeking asylum.

Once they got refugee status, they were accommodated by members of a local refugee support group until they were allocated social housing. They were eligible for social housing because they were both in "priority need" on grounds of vulnerability. Their experiences had been so appalling that their mental health was totally fucked.

One has done really well, is working, off benefits and everything, I don't think the other will ever recover from her experiences. I bump into her occasionally and she's really struggling, her mental health is totally shot.

Women are more likely to come to the UK through other routes, usually with families. I've worked in homeless accommodation where we took families in once asylum had been granted, lots of women and young children.

Many of the men who travel to the UK spend up to a year on these journeys, with the family paying smugglers for the first step, and then working and living illegally in different countries to fund the next stages, and spending time in places like the 'jungle' in Calais. You can imagine why families would pick a healthy young male to send on that journey rather than a single woman, or woman with young children.

What is shared attic space

I don’t doubt that living next door to such a place can cause problems, including many of the problems OP mentions.

I don’t believe for a second this thread is genuine though. There is no way in hell anyone knows this level of detail about their neighbours, much less transient neighbours with poor English. That part is just not remotely believable - just think about it and you will realise!

There were some women and children in a hotel on the seafront here, but that has now closed. I don't know where they have been relocated to.

Please share how it’s done because my upstanding friend whose claim has been open for ages could use the dosh.

I know very well about the backlog, where do you think that backlog came from? Hint, Labour weren't in power.

@JapanesePotWeed hi there

because I was so puzzled by the firewall/loft thing, I looked up

I note that you said you can’t get insurance anymore anyway. If you come to a point where you can get insurance….

I thought that insurers had a specific question about this because I’ve seen it on my parents house insurance forms

I asked mum and she said there was a lot of fuss when they bought it, and they were told that they would have to get it made safe.

So since then, she has had to declare it on insurance forms and eventually I’ve just seen it as a part of a list of stuff that’s written on the forms

Anyway, the point I’m making rather badly…

I looked it up and surprisingly the insurance companies expect you to actually declare it. It comes under non-standard construction apparently.

I bet a lot of people fall foul of it because there’s no question about it specifically.

It jumped out at me because in my first flat, I was responsible for annual maintenance of those firewalls.

Anyway, just saying that to you in case you are able to get out of this place and you find yourself in another house that’s got a similar setup.

Obviously I realise there are far bigger issues than this right now, but I’m just sharing that in case it’s useful.

I really hope something happens that makes this nightmare go away. So many streets being ruined like this. 💐