To accept a huge loss on my house

[CurlyHairMare1]

I live in a semi detached house in a quiet cul de sac. I’ve spent a lot of money doing it up and making it lovely. Early this year my neighbours (the ones I’m attached to) sold their house incredibly cheaply as it needed an awful lot of work doing to it.

A man bought it to do up and rent out, I understood he had a property business so assumed he’d be the landlord.

Fast forward to now and he’s actually turned it in to an HMO. He has a number of them across the city.

I put my house on the market in Spring and I just can not sell it due to the HMO. I’ve had a number of offers accepted and they have all pulled out when they have found out what I’m attached to so I’m now declaring it up front.

Would I be unreasonable to sell my house for way under asking price just so I can get rid of it? The estate agent has suggested it would need to go for nearly 100k less to even get any kind of interest.

I’m exhausted with the whole situation.

If you only have the one house to let it is doubtful whether it is worth your while to let. I let my pre-marriage house and the tenants stopped paying the rent.

Thats amazing ! So ive put the circumstances into AI and this is the suggestion of what to do:

• Confirm covenant details

Obtain the Title Register and Title Plan from HM Land Registry (if not already done) and read the exact wording of the restrictive covenant. Confirm whether it binds successors in title (i.e. current owners) and who has the benefit of enforcing it (often the original developer or neighbouring owners).

• Gather planning and licensing facts

Request copies of the HMO licence and planning permission or change of use approval from the council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Check whether the HMO falls under Article 4 Direction controls (which can restrict conversions to HMOs in designated zones).

• Check for planning breach

If the property was converted without planning permission where an Article 4 Direction applies, or if the use violates local HMO limits, can submit a planning enforcement complaint to the council’s planning enforcement team.

• Raise covenant enforcement issue

Restrictive covenants are private legal matters, not automatically overridden by planning permission. If she or other nearby owners have the benefit of the covenant, they can instruct a solicitor specialising in property litigation to issue a formal letter before action to the HMO owner, warning that the use breaches the covenant.

• Notify the council

Send a formal letter to the Housing Licensing and Planning Enforcement departments stating that the HMO licence has been granted on a property subject to a restrictive covenant limiting occupancy to a single household. Ask them to review the licence in light of this and confirm whether planning consent exists or was required.

• Optional escalation

If the council refuses to act and there is clear evidence of error or procedural unfairness (e.g. inconsistent application of HMO restrictions), can make a formal complaint to the council’s monitoring officer, and if unresolved, to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

I hope this helps !

Interesting, I would take that information to your local MP and see what they say.

Just to help manage your expectations slightly (from a Planning Enforcement Officer):
Licensing is completely separate from planning. I know that you feel like something has gone wrong, but it hasn't. This is how it works. A license can be issued without planning permission, even though it seems nonsensical to you, the onus is on the owner of the property to ensure all of the necessary permissions are in place, not the council.
You can (and you should) report a breach of planning to the planning enforcement department. BUT, they will not simply close the HMO down in time for you to sell your property. The likely timeline is that they will contact the owner, probably requesting that an application is made. This will probably take at least a couple of months. The application will go through the system, two more months. If it's not approved, they will give the owner time to appeal, this is more months.
I'm absolutely not suggesting that it's not a worthy route to go down, just that people in general have wild expectations of planning enforcement just slapping on notices immediately, and that just doesn't happen in reality.

Thank you, I really appreciate your input.

I think the best route for me to go down is still to report him for breach of planning (we have article 4 here). I don’t understand the council putting an article 4 direction in place if they’re not going to enforce it!

I’ll also look in to how I can report him (who or to) for breaching the restricted covenants.

Involving local MP once all the evidence is gathered is a good idea. The MP should be made aware of how things are operating and impacting real people. Also the MP can ask some stern questions of the Council officers and let them know they know. It will surely be helpful for the Council officers to know the MP is involved and aware. Also the MP can raise in Parliament as its an issue probably for more people than just one person.

That is really interesting and good to know.

I understand you work within the system and are not personally at fault if that system is poorly executed.

But - is it not batently obvious that the council should check that pp has been given in areas where Article 4 applies before they issue a licence. It should be a pre-requisite. Why is it not a pre-requisite?

Op - if this is how your council are running operations they deserve to have the ass sued off them and I really, really hope the people affected in areas where this is happening get together to bring a class action - not so that hard pressed councils have to pay out, but so they administer effectively.

Yes they do exist too but this is not what the lady who posted is talking about. The government are under pressure to no longer use asylum hotels. Now these people are being put in HMO’s organised by the likes of Serco. Landlords are offered huge sums. Imagine these popping up nextdoor to you where you previously had a lovely family or students. Families are being given notice, landlord is secure for 5 years on a high yield with al expenses paid. Families renting are going to struggle to find alternatives.

You would them have to inform potential buyers and as it could drag on for years would be making the property even more difficult to sell, isn`t it better just to price for a sale as you originally intended? Some people will care less than others about an HMO.

You could ask your local council. They set the council tax according to the house Band. Whether that makes a difference or not I don't know. I think you may have to go to court. Armed with the info, you should win.

See if you have legal expenses on your house insurance. They will take it up for you if it is wrong. I have legal expenses up to £50K. Perhaps yours is more?

We lived in SW London, the council was just waving through HMOs with no planning permission. Next door to us was bought up, 3 bed terrace so 2 decent bedrooms and a box room, they turned it into a 6 bed HMO. Council wouldn’t do anything about amount of bins needed so rats moved in within weeks as there was constant rubbish strewn about everywhere which foxes and seagulls then dragged everywhere.
people standing outside the house at all times of the day and night due to shift work. Smoking weed constantly. The place stank. Cars and motorbikes revving all the time. Within the house, doors slamming, music playing. It was awful. We put our house on the market immediately and the developers made a stupidly low offer for our house too. Luckily we were able to sell it for just below asking price and we got the hell out. Especially as the house on the other side of us looked to be going the same way.
If you complain to the council you have to declare it when you sell, so we didn’t. But we campaigned bitterly to make sure that planning permission was needed for all HMOs and now, 4 years after the fact, the council has Article 4 direction coming in next year ( I think, stopped caring when we moved) so none of this can be done under permitted development any more.

Did your buyers know there was an HMO next door?

We never explicitly said anything but they viewed 3 times and there was no way they could not have known. We did let our EAs know that if anyone asked they were to confirm that it was an HMO. It had a license that was searchable on the council website too.

It's happening everywhere.
An exclusive gated community in Dublin, on the once beautifully kept hotel grounds, has lost 100,000's off the value, the hotel was converted into a 2000 bed international protection centre.
If only you could sue the state.

What's an international protection centre?

An accommodation centre for refugees to live while applying for international protection.

Not saying their isn"t a need for some accommodation like this but Dublin is welded to the EU, they don"t have the off ramp from all this nonsense that the UK has.

You are already doing the right thing by being upfront about it. i'd say in cases like this, the reality is that the property’s value often drops because buyers see extra noise, turnover and uncertainty, so a below-market sale is sometimes the only way to draw interest.

You would not be unreasonable to reduce the price significantly if your priority is to move on with your life rather than wait indefinitely for the “right” buyer. The real question is how quickly you need to sell.

If you want out soon, price it to reflect the HMO next door and attract cash buyers or investors.

If you can afford to wait, you might get a better offer eventually, but there’s no guarantee. There is nothing wrong with cutting your losses if staying is making you miserable.

Good advice.

Most people will go for the house without the HMO next door I think, that is the reality I think, very few people are so desperate to buy that they will take the chance of future problems and maybe future difficulty selling?