A single, male relative of mine owns his own home in an area that used to be quite ok but has become fairly depressed.
About 6 years ago his next door neighbour (old lady) passed away and the house was sold to a landlord. He soon let it as a HMO. It has 3 bedrooms and on average about 8 people were living in it - all young men in their twenties (not students). Fast forward many years of hell for my relative, with constant issues including 24-7 noise, nowhere to park, overflowing rubbish, rats, etc.
Last year just after lockdown the landlord sold up. He told my relative it hadn't been licensed and as the tenants had wrecked the place he'd had enough and was selling up. So they all moved out and it went on the market.
Snapped up a few months later by a wealthy Chinese couple who said they had bought 20 properties in the area (!!!). They put a key-safe next to the front door, decorated it, very basic, then disappeared. The property still has a small fire extinguisher on wall and huge locks on all internal doors.
One month ago a lovely guy appeared at the door, told my relative he and his family were moving in soon. Relative was relieved and was happy to know the house was going to a family, etc.
However, no sign of this family since.
In the past 3 days, several young men have appeared outside and gone into the house via the key-safe, talking loudly on phone and walking up and down smoking for an hour (exact same type of guys who lived there when it was a HMO). None of them are related and have all turned up separately, as if they are checking out the house.
I told relative it looks like the 'family guy' fell through and the owners are now reverting it back to a HMO. My relative kind of doesn't want to accept that and is hoping the family move in after all, but I personally doubt it, because if it was already contracted to the family guy, I can't see why these random young men keep turning up there.
AIBU to suspect the HMO thing is starting up again? If I were relative I would just drop it as a lost cause and look for somewhere new. It caused him so much stress for so many years it was agonising to watch.