House of horrors - please help me see a nicer reason for this

[HouseOfHorrors]

Today I viewed a house, I knew it would be in bad condition and was a refurb job. It beyond disgustingly bad - even had a used needle on the floor.

However what has really freaked me out is every room in the house had a heavy duty anti-cut padlock on the outside of the door! Some rooms the padlock was still done up and the door had been broken to open the room and others the padlocks had been taken off and just hooked onto the one side of the catch.

Now all I can think is that people have been locked up their against their will and potentially drugged there. I've keep wondering if it was a unwilling prostitute prison house.

I'm a wuss at the best of times, so this has got me feeling sick. Please somebody come up with a reason why you would heavy duty padlock every room in the house from the outside, that doesn't include people being held against the will.

I wouldn’t take the house!

Surely it's to put off squatters

I agree with PP- it could have just been that people rented rooms in the house and padlocked then when they weren’t there in the same way that we lock the doors. Do you know the seller’s circumstances OP? Is it with a legit agent? If it is dodgy, an agent worth their salt would be alerting the police- is like to think anyway!

Hope there is a rational explanation.

So many typos in that reply- sorry!

Please link. I’m intrigued. And as for the murder door - wow, I must have had a sheltered life.

Years ago I lived in a mother and baby hostel. We had heavy duty padlocks on our doors so if we went away we could secure our rooms as theft was a massive problem.

in my first house i had a padlock on the outside of the door to stop my housemates going in. it was cheaper than buying and installing a yale lock. plus i didnt need it locked when i was in the house or asleep so just padlocked it when i went out.

In the 90s viewed an old house owned by a very elderly "woman's doctor" according to the estate agent who showed me around. One of the bedrooms was set up like a hospital room. I couldn't get it out of my head that it was where she had done private terminations. Nothing wrong with terminations and I'm sure it was much better to have it done by a qualified person somewhere safe, but it just felt very sad.

The old lady herself was semi conscious in a bed in the sitting room when I looked around, which was pretty awful in itself.

But I get you OP, things can put you off a house.

I saw that on one room in a house I viewed, and it freaked me out. Could it have been to stop squatters?

If the house was full of drug addicts, maybe they kept a huge stash in the padlocked rooms. Maybe they padlocked their room when they left to keep their own possessions safe. — I’m not even convinced myself though —

This is a common thing in shared houses.
Not particularly official HMO but a house that a few people share as housemates,
A house we bought was the same and I hadn't thought of imprisonment just that it had been rented out to a few random people who didn't trust each other.

When I was a kid, there were bolts on all the downstairs doors of our house. It probably looked pretty bad when we sold but it was because there were alarm sensors on all the internal doors and I used to sleepwalk; my parents got tired of being woken by the alarm going off in the middle of the night. For some reason I could work doorhandles in my sleep, but not bolts.

Saw a programme once where an elderly couple owned a HMO and mates of the people who lived there would set up camp in the vacant rooms and refuse to leave so they had to padlock all the empty rooms. A few then had the doors broken down. I’m sure it’s something similar.

To prevent squatters?

I agree. OP, if you aren't buying it a link would be great.

Come on, let's see it! There's no way you can live there now, so give us the link

But I agree with the pps who say it's just an HMO. I've lived in dives like this, back in the day. From the Christian imagery, maybe let a lot of African migrants?

What is your budget for this property?

It may have been let to tenants with a higher than average crime risk - for example perhaps used as a half-way house for drug addicts or people released from prison on parole.

If the padlocks had been used to keep people in then they wouldn't need to be anti-cut on the outside.

It sounds like a bargain house. They ususally are when in that condition.
Have you lots of other good options in your price range?

The padlocks May have been put on to stop people living there whilst empty? I think your over thinking things a little.

All our bedrooms and our living areas have bolts on the top of the doors in the hallway. If you didn't know us you would think it was to lock people into the bedrooms. In fact it is to lock the dog out! He can open all the doors, from either side. He uses the handle then pushes the door open or pulls it towards him.

A friend of mine lived in a 20's semi full of original features and that had locks on all the internal doors.

I used to work as a home carer for people with dementia. There was one man who was so confused he often put himself in danger so the family had locked the other rooms for his safety. Could it be something like this?

Other than that, I think probably an unofficial house share.

Ask the neighbours

Our house had padlocks on the outside of the bedroom doors, the previous owner locker her children in bedrooms. They were removed from her care thankfully! Very odd/sad to see though

Lot of imaginative people on here.

Sounds very much as some, less wildly imaginative, pps have said, a house where people just wanted to keep their stuff safe from the other occupants.