HMO

[ThisOliveBiscuit]

We’ve bought a house and moved in 5 months ago , few months before we moved in a house next door went on the market and was sold to a property developer. Turns out that the area we moved to is being saturated with HMO housing which we didn’t know about before. So now house next door is being extended and turned into one of those . I feel literally sick to my stomach , can’t function, crying most of the time and don’t know what to do , we are unable to oppose this as this council has not implemented an article 4 which gives you a right to do so.
Talking about it makes me feel sick as I’ve imagined this as our home at least for the next 10 years or more , was any of you in similar situation?

@Hibernatingtilspringthey are if the rent is being paid for them.

My mum lived in a little terraced house in a bougie bit of London. Two men who lived in similar (but slightly bigger) houses on the same road took part in an armed robbery nd both did a 10 stretch while the guy across the road (who taught my mum how to parallel park) fenced it all through his greengrocers shop.

@TofuEaterive never had to live in shared accommodation with strangers.
i don’t feel I’ve missed any stage of life by not doing so

But, serious question- there has likely been a child Sex offender living on all the streets you’ve lived on, for all the decades you’ve been alive. Did you genuinely worry about them before?

@sciaticafanatica You haven't rented for a while have you? Even if you're entitled to full benefits, the amount you can claim for housing is capped, and it hasn't been increased in years when rents have skyrocketed. For example, in my average northern town where a room is £600pcm the maximum amount of benefit someone can claim for that room is £316 a month. So no, if a property developer is doing up a house, the likelihood of it being affordable to addicts or recent convicts is slim to none.

@Hibernatingtilspringand you haven’t lived near a HMO full of alcoholics who don’t work but have everything paid for them under the guise of supported living.
the ones in my area are full of the scum of the earth!
the young professionals live in the apartments not in a room in a terraced house .

I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, both with and outside my home - so sadly very aware of this reality. The fear of this reality has remained with me, which grew when I became a mum.

@sciaticafanatica if you'd bothered to read the thread you'll see that I asked if the OP had any indication that it would be a property that was seeking enhanced rates. But it appears not, just that the OP is stereotyping.

And not all young professionals can afford apartments, I'd say that majority can't. Again we're a grim northern town but a two bed terrace with a shared garden is rarely less than 1k a month. How many people can afford that on an average wage? It's hard enough for a couple let alone a single person.

I lived in house shares for years, at the budget end so I have lived WITH some pretty ropey people, not just next to. But I had to deal with it, because I was poor. Working, just poor.

As I said a few pages back these are not HMOs. I am a trustee for a mental health charity that provides housing. If it wasn’t for these “lodgings” the residents would be dead or in prison. Addiction is very common in serious long term mental illness.

These people live amongst us. They’ve lived complex, sad lives and there for the grace of god go us.

Amazingly, we operate in the richest borough in the country and never have complaints from neighbours all of whom own multiple million pound townhouses.

So bluntly- the HMO brings nothing new in terms of the time you spend thinking about CSO?

A shared house doesn't have to be with strangers. I've lived in them with friends. It's usually a fun part of young adulthood. Nothing to be hysterical about

Why does every bloody thread on here almost always turn into some kind of dig at men from certain countries. The racism in society these days is getting out of hand.

Just out of interest, if these are your real views why did you use AI to write your post?

Just say it. This is about the boat people.

HMO residents does not mean "bad". I know men in their 60s who live in them.
The real AIBU is that people have to live in them to start with because having their own place with their own space is out of reach on a normal wage.

Does it occur to you that maybe those men risking their lives to come here - illegally, because there are no legal routes - might also want better lives for themselves, their sisters, mothers and daughters? People are leaving those regimes because it’s not safe to live under them. Why assume that they are the problem, rather than running away from the problem?

CSO? CSA maybe?

When it comes to “time spent thinking about paedophiles or unvetted men in HMOs,” I can’t put a number on it — but the bottom line is that certain men are statistically more likely to pose a risk.
For example, men with a history of violence, especially towards women or a sense of entitlement or belief in having “rights” over women, substance abuse issues, having a criminal background and many more. These are all red flags, and yes, they trigger concern when a pattern is detected.

The difficulty is that, in some cases, the men in question come from cultures where women are treated poorly. This means that the safety instincts we’ve developed in our own environments can end up being reframed or dismissed through a racial or cultural lens.

That shift in framing often reduces empathy for why some people — especially women — feel vulnerable when such men move into our communities, and particularly near our homes. Our homes should be the one place where we feel safe.

I'm not even going to engage with this assertion.

Hopeful thinking. I would love to believe this, but the risk factors as I've mentioned previously are so great that for these men to want this would warrant a massive shift in thoughts and behaviours. Even if this was possible, it would require a solid support plan for these men which is simply not there.

What is it that makes them ‘scum of the earth’?

Or it might be earmarked for asylum seekers.
Government are offering landlords guaranteed rent to house people coming over.

They get their full rent paid the government they don't have to worry about non payers. Win win for the landlords.

You haven’t mentioned any ‘risk factors’ - a nationality isn’t a risk factor.

This sounds great - can you point me to where the government are offering this, I’d like to sign up.

How are there 6 men living next door already if it's yet to be extended and turned into an HMO by a property developer?

Its just bedsits for people to live in and you need to pack it in with the hysteria.

If you can tell me where the em dash is on the keyboard I’ll believe you wrote it. We all use AI to help with stuff but if you’ve used it so much you can’t formulate a post about your own views then maybe you…don’t really know what you think?

@Allisnotlost1you seriously don’t consider people who are constantly pissed and drugged up, shouting, fighting and pissing in the garden scum??
because I do because they are!!