Shared Houses

[Cutecat78]

I know that it's really hard for young people to move out independently and I'm not sure what the easy answers are to that.

BUT 3 bed 2 rec house next door to us (attached side) has just sold and was bought by a couple who have let out all the rooms inc the reception rooms - so 4 people house sharing and a couple renting the master en suite meaning an extra six cars on a road with no off road parking and where here and in the surrounding streets parking is a massive issue.

We live in a street with about 40 old Victorian "family" homes and this is about the 6/7th time this has happened in recent years and our street just cannot cope with the extra cars meaning we sometimes have to park a few streets away (with a weeks shopping ).

If houses are to be converted into flats planning permission has to be sought - AIBU to think there needs to be some limit on the amount of houses being divided up to be room lets on each street as I also feel the sense of community is disappearing what used to be families is now loads of young people coming and going who we never get to know.

AIBU? I guess I probably am

[evilcherub]

I would report all these houses to HMRC as so many of these landlords will not be declaring their rental income. You can do it here (anonymously);

<a class="break-all" href="https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/TEH_IRF?dept-name=TEH&sub-dept-name=&location=39&origin=www.hmrc.gov.uk" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/TEH_IRF?dept-name=TEH&sub-dept-name=&location=39&origin=www.hmrc.gov.uk

[heron98]

We are wedged in between 2 ten bed student houses (ours is a flat before you think we have a mansion!).

All ten of them have cars. So there are twenty cars for two houses.

And only one bin per house! So there is rubbish everywhere.

I feel your pain.

[Kaddy]

. I was being tongue in cheek, honest .

[Cutecat78]

Unlikely that my 3 step children would all come and live here with my 3 kids.

We do have a garage but it's too small to get the car into actually.

[Kaddy]

Future AIBU written by the OPs Neighbour AIBU, our Neighbour only used to have two cars but now their kids are all teens and older they all flippin' have cars - there are 8 cars.

[MidniteScribbler]

If you absolutely must park in front of your house, then you should buy a house with a garage or driveway. Otherwise, you take your chances.

[TiffanyAtBreakfast]

I totally understand the frustration but unfortunately, if parking bothers you to this degree you just have to choose a house that has a driveway or allocated parking. Sadly I don't think there's much you can do other than move.

Also, being a family of 8 bringing the shopping in doesn't give you any more entitlement to park easily than the house-sharers.

[MistressDeeCee]

A mate of mine has been doing "rogue landlords" programmes on TV recently (sorry can't recall name of series now) and its amazing how many landlords don't bother with regulating, just pack people into properties, overcrowded living in shit conditions

YANBU OP but its not something you can control. The housing situation is dire, it would be even worse for tenants if a requirement of being a tenant was, they either didnt own a car or couldn't park it outside property

Must admit I would really, really hate it if I had to park streets away and carry bags too. I live within 10 minutes walk of 2 rail stations, direct lines into central London, and commuters park on our road. Its also a rat-run for getting onto main road. We've been asked if we want parking zones (CPZ or some such? sorry its late, brain not working well!) but so far we have all said no. All I envisage is us having to pay to park outside our own homes. On the other hand a few houses on my road are converted into flats/multiple occupation, parking zones won't assuage that, the cars will still be there I assume they would all be entitled to resident permits, wouldn't they?

[thecatneuterer]

Keep in mind that there are regulations even for non-licenceable HMOs - obvious ones are fire doors, smoke and CO2 alarms. So you can report and let the council drop the LL in it.

Not true - fire doors are only needed in licenceable HMOs. The only extra rule that applies to non-licenceable HMOs that doesn't apply to other rented homes is that an electrical safety certificate is required - to be renewed every five years. Other than that it is no different.

[Bumbalumba]

The same thing has happened to the house next door to me (similar situation - victorian semi with 3 bedrooms and 2 reception rooms). Re the car parking it goes in phases, the most there have been is 4 cars parked on the street (which makes life difficult) but there are currently none (as there's only 1 tenant at the moment).
We tried to object when the house was sold and converted to an HMO as it's changed the character of the street. I don't mean that in a snobby way. It's just that most other people on the street know each other as we've lived here for years but it's hard to get to know the people living there, most don't stay long. In the event we couldn't object anyway (because planning permission wasn't needed to convert it to an HMO)

[Cutecat78]

Yeah - we also have people taking up 2 spaces with 1 car

[RattieOfCatan]

YABU. It's a PITA, but this is how we have to live. I've been in small and big HMOs for nearly nine years now in one form or another, for half of that I've had a car too.

It's not like we enjoy pissing off the neighbours with the amount of cars but it's not like we can all go without. Saying that though, I'm in Brighton and most HMOs are student homes and a lot of them don't bother with cars as they can get everywhere by bus, DH and I have one each as it would take him over an hour to get to work (10minute drive) and I can't get to work without a car as I'm in the middle of the countryside. I also rarely am able to park on my street when I get home thanks to the three other HMOs on our tiny road, most houses having 2 cars minimum, people taking up two fucking spaces and nobody using their drives because they're shared at the bottom and split behind the houses and they can't be fucked to drive up/down the hill to get there and/or because they've extended their gardens They park on the drives when the road is full though. Wankers. I've also had a neighbour stick nails in my tyres three times for parking in one of 'their' three spots (yes three) and they've screamed at me for daring to park further down the road when there was one space left and they arrived just as I was parking.

Can't fucking wait to leave tbh. The cars being a huge factor!

[Cutecat78]

Thanks jeremy you have helped

[Jeremysfavouriteaunt]

I have never heard of an HMO excluding bills, I have tried to help, good luck with sorting it out.

[Cutecat78]

No - round here it's £500 with all bills inc.

[Jeremysfavouriteaunt]

The £400 a month will include all utility bills and council tax. You might find that it gets sold ahead of new tax rules coming in for April 2017.

[Cutecat78]

I have no malice towards the tenants I totally understand the predicament.

It pisses me off that you can rent a house on this street as whole for £1200 a month but greedy landlords rent them out for £400 a month each room for five rooms not giving a shit about the other people on the street.

[bananapeanut]

I live in a HMO. There are 7 of us living here. It is grim. We all have cars because all of us work/study in places that need cars. Think medical students.

The neighbours hate us - they even posted us a horrible letter saying that they were going to report us if we didn't get rid of cars.

I don't know why they deserve three swanky cars when there are only two of them to be honest, but it's a public road so they can have what they like. And so can we

[curlywurly4]

I'm in a similar situation but still think YABU.

Half of the houses where we live are house shares, the other half are families. There are more cars, noise, parties, lots of people coming and going but where else are people supposed to live

I feel very lucky we have our house to ourselves. The family opposite have to let rooms to afford the rent. The dogs would annoy me though.

[Jeremysfavouriteaunt]

Thanks Essential interesting how it varies in different areas.

[EssentialHummus]

Do you need fire doors in non licensed HMOs?

jeremy - you do in Medway/Kent. Not sure about anywhere else.

[whois]

Yeah it does sound a bit NIMBY.

If it's the parking that bothers you, campaign for residents parking.

[Cutecat78]

We've been here 10 yrs and two families have owned it since then - times have changed and I was worried when I saw it was up for sale.

There are also two dogs left in the house all day who bark which is also a bit shit

[Cutecat78]

YABU and you sound pretty horrible. Don't you think the tenants would like to live somewhere less crowded, with a bloody living room? Thanks

Yes - but I would also like to park outside my own house or at least in my own street when shopping sometimes for a family of eight.

[apple1992]

Cutecat- yes I just read your OP again and noticed that. I'm sure it is really frustrating; I live on what sounds like a very similar street and parking is a nightmare (although as others have said, more cars from family homes than HMOs!) but just to play Devils advocate, maybe you should have considered it before purchasing a property without off street parking? Just sounds a bit NIMBY!