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.

OP, you need to google if the council has an article 4 direction in place.

few things, how did you know it’s worth the expected selling price, did you add the work you spent on it? Sometimes it doesn’t work like that as the area may have a price level,

also don’t discount the fact this savings landlords isn’t on cahoots with the owner of the estate agent. They may not be handing over inquiries to you.. perhaps try another local estate agent

This is goign to happen a lot more if asylum seekers are dispersed into HMOs. Houses of all male occupants, way over occupied - not in a legal sense obviously because the landlord will comply with the letter of the law. But there are 6 adult males in a 3 bed semi. This ought to be unacceptable. It will happen to lots more people - finding themselves attached to an HMO which massively impacts their property value.

Accepting the loss seems absolutely shocking. It’s a gigantic loss. I don’t know what I would do. How can you afford the loss firstly, and secondly how can you know that if you move, that this wouldn’t happen again?

Great, okay. You also need to check the date the Article 4 came into power as it has to be before it was converted into a 6 bed HMO.

So sorry for you. These HMOs are a fucking blight on decent neighbourhoods and the greed of these landlords makes me feel sick.
I blame Homes Under The Hammer.

There is a HMO next door to the block where I live it was a 5 bed house, now a 9 bed HMO, all professional tenants, only issue is car parking as they all have cars. The owner of the hmo has split the plot and built a 3 bed house with 1 car park space. Lots of objections which the council took no notice of.

we have complained that some of the planners stipulations have not been completed, Bin store not built so rubbish bins blowing over in the wind etc.

There are 2 other hmo's in the street, one has huge car parking issues the other has addicts and migrants residents.

There is HMO a few doors up from us and one across the road. The parking has got a lot worse has they have turned a 3 bed house into 6 flats. God knows how this was done. Most if the houses around here that are sold have been turned into flats. We don't have any trouble from them but there has been a few doughnuts in the one along from us and the police have been in there a few times.
I would try and sell to the landlord as I wouldn't want to live right next door to a HMO.

Rough'ns not doughnuts.

It doesn’t sound like there’s much you can do - either sell it at a lower price or keep it on in the hope someone might not mind.
alternatively, do the work, turn it to an hmo and sell to a landlord.

I very much doubt they are working adults. The very nature of supported accommodation- of which the ‘support’ qualifies them to charge a much higher rate than standard shared accommodation, means that the tenants will be in need of support, ie with drug/alcohol issues, fresh out of prison,at risk of homelessness.
The occupants are not fully functioning professionals.

People should get a collective action going and Sue the govt for compensation in destroying house values to recover their losses. It’s disgusting!

It did come in to power first, so you would assume that a licence wouldn’t have been granted without it having planning permission. But it was!

It does have it in place, so they must not be following their own guidelines!

I would speak to your local councillor or MP and ask them why!

Many are working professionals though.

House prices are high. How do young professionals afford to buy or rent in some areas? Shared housing fills a need.

In my area the HMO was a staff house for a country hotel. All working, accommodation offered with the job, less cost than the hotel having to provide expensive rooms on-site.

Some councils have a policy they won't allow 2 HMO next door to each other so you'd need to check with your council if they have that policy before trying to sell to person who owns HMO.

This Labour government is also paying HMO LL to house asylum seekers. They often stand around in large groups outside houses smoking, vaping and intimidating others.

That was what I was wondering. I've a few HMOs. The tenants are all lovely.

So all those people setting fire to wheelie bins outside the asylum hotels are going to have them living next door to them now. The law of unintended consequences.

The plan was to sell even before I knew about the HMO. Now it turns out it’s impossible as no one wants to be attached to one

Ah that's good news for you have the option to go through planning enforcement.

If you do you can't complain r.e. price it has to be i.e. extra noise, poor quality accommodation etc.

I know my council didn't check planning permission before granting licences.

I think you would be as well to get another estate agents opinion. To me it sounds like he might be trying to con you out of a lot of money. I do not think house prices will be as affected being near an HMO to lose so much money. Your agent may even be trying to buy the place himself at as low cost as he can and could then sell it on for a greater amount. I am a bit cynical at times about estate agents but sometimes they can't be trusted.

Would it be allowed for an estate agent to handle the valuation and sale of a property they themselves were buying? That would be wide open to a conflict of interest.

You don't have to take the estate agent's figure of 100k as gospel. Check with other estate agents. Even then you still don't have to take their figures as gospel. You might instead decide - as a first step to test the market - to put up for sale at 50k less. Estate agents can say a lot of things. Be cautious about running with the first thing they tell you.

You may have other options than the estate agent open market route. Posters have suggested the next door owner or public auction.

Other potential buyers you might approach directly could include the local authority housing department, or a university if you have one near you. Maybe a health authority or large teaching hospital might be looking for accommodation for students or staff.

There are also people who advertise that they buy any property. This would involve a discounted price for hard to sell properties or just wanting a quick hassle free sale but again it would probably involve 50k rather than 100. However you need to be careful of who you are dealing with. I've heard of such people offering a price and then lowering at the last minute when contract about to be signed.

Another option is keeping it and renting it out yourself but the viability of doing this depends on your financial situation and whether you could manage that and still buy a new place for yourself.

Perfect solution, this single mum should just keep reporting and challenging those men with dubious backgrounds and anti social behaviour.

As you undoubtedly would. You non-racist, liberal, bless your dear bleeding superior white saviour heart. This is what you do, every day. While not seeing cultures or patterns. All you see is people, men, all men.