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.

A hmo landlord will still want it cheap though (probably cheaper than a member of the public would pay) if I’ve read rightly OP can sell for £100k less, to whoever. It’s the £100k less that’s the issue

Are they necessarily any more noisy than a family with three or four young children?

Before you do this, get another estate agent to market the property. They are vastly different.

Although living next to a HMO is not ideal ,I can't see why it needs to be a £100,000 drop in price. That's a mad amount and seems very unlikely. Most people would be OK with a £20,000 drop in price for living near a HMO. I say this living in an area where almost every third property seems to be a HMO.

I feel for you OP. This is an increasing trend, as investors can't squeeze as much as they want out if traditional buy to lets, they are opting for HMO conversions which are more profitable. Some are tenanted by 'young professionals', more by working single men and students. They're also in demand as temporary social housing for stretched councils.

They can be vulnerable to subletting. Landlords vary hugely in their willingness to respond to problems. HMOs with higher tenant turnover are more likely to be neglected as people are less invested in keeping the property and garden in good condition. People feeling indignant about HMO discrimination may not have experience of them - they can be very challenging to live next to.

The semi-detached suburbs of the historic university town my friend lives in have recently been targeted by HMO developers, one tactic is to convert one half of a semi, move students in and then low-ball offer on the other half, knowing the reluctance of people to live next to HMOs and their difficulty in selling them.

The council has to approve HMOs, but HMOs do NOT necessarily need planning permission, especially with only 6 tenants.

I would never buy a semi with the other half an HMO. As people have suggested, you could approach the owner of the other semi, or a corporation / landlord in your area who deals in HMOs (rental agencies, the council, local housing associations may give you information). Or market low. If you can stand the loss, I would sell if at all possible.

In the nicest possible way

If it has a licence as an hmo its an hmo.

If planning permission was required and not obtained do you have the actual willpower and time to try and get the LA to take enforcement action on an hmo they have licensed?

It will sell for what the market dictates. Jusr keep being honest in the advertising

I think the issue is that the children are usually in bed and up at a certain times.

with 6 distinct adults living mostly in their bedroom, working different shifts, watching telly and doing their thing in one room it massively changes the dynamic of a 3 bedroom semi

That’s really grim and shouldn’t be allowed.

This. It’s so hard to buy a house now surely there would be ie first time buyers who were looking at far less house for the £100k less price bracket and would be interested in trading up and suck up the neighbours? If I could get a 3 bed semi for the cost of a 2 bed flat in a block I’d be all over it.

Well we don't actually know how much OP is losing given we don't know what the house was bought for nor how much she wants to sell for.

Theres a big difference between buying for £300k and selling for £200k vs buying for £300k and wanting to sell for £600k but having to accept £500k.

Most strange? Do you genuinely think it’s strange that the OP is struggling with not being able to sell her house due to this situation next door? Have you read her posts?

I think taking out a mortgage is quite normal though for people with multiple properties so this isn't necessarily an issue. My friend's dp makes 400k a year on his properties but I understand always takes a mortgage out on them as it's apparently not a good use of cash having it all tied up in property 💁‍♀️💁‍♀️💁‍♀️

I don’t want to give too much away but it’s closer to your first set of figures

I would try your councillor and MP - it sounds like your council may not be following the rules and they might be interested.

I don’t think OP is responsible for young people’s mental health.

Could you sell it to the landlord next door for a better price?

I wonder whether the way they have subdivided the rooms is actually safe from a fire safety aspect, particularly because you are joined to them.

Turn yours into an hmo as well. Why should you lose so much money ?

OP you can find his registered address through the land registry as the owner of the property. Give HM Land Registry a call. They are very helpful.

have you read mine where I answered the same question from someone else? 😂 who knew strange was such a controversial word

That was my worry. But I’ve been told that the council would have checked the property before issuing a licence so I guess it must be up to standard.

Excellent idea….

Agree. Op, go to MP and get a bit of publicity to start a class action. Hopefully even just the mention of it will wake the council up to abide by the law as too expensive not to.

I have no objection to proper development, but this just strikes me as corrupt, unfair and unsafe.

Spoken to the council and got nowhere as the planning department and the licensing department are different apparently!

I'm afraid you are missing the point still OP. IF you want to complain about it not having planning permission you need to make a planning enforcement complaint. Edit - there should be an email address on your council website under "planning".

The HMO owner will then likely make an application for retrospective planning permission, and then you will have a chance to comment (noise, how many people is relevant. house prices isn't). That you share a boundary wall is relevant but no guarantees.

It's a long process and planning permission may be granted. You'd be better off getting an offer from the HMO land owner. You should be able to get his details easy enough, it would be on the HMO licence.

The HMO owner has a strong incentive to buy if he doesn't have planning permission for a semi detached, as a complaint from the neighbour is likely to sour it. Conversely it's a good option for expansion.

Is your local newspaper/BBC aware? I'd contact them about this and kick up a stink. This must be causing problems across your council area.

The HMO licence might be for less than the amount of people there. He's unlikely to have split up the rooms, it's probably 2 to a room or multiple bunk beds. Environmental Health might be interested.

I never said they were...