To buy a house near a HMO

[BurnedM2]

viewed a house yesterday I really like which has a driveway and off road parking but the road itself parking is quite bad and the property in front is a HMO.

AIBU to buy the property

No- one would want a house near an HMO by choice .Anti social behaviour being the first possibility. Resale would be hard .

Depends on how strict your council is, who it is rented to etc etc. My sister's only issue was parking and bins, both have been sorted out and HMO licenses have been suspended. My SIL had a HMO, they were Alderhey hospital doctors/temporary consultants. Do you know who lives there? Does the price of the house reflect the HMO?

I suppose it depends in the HMO and whether theres any ongoing issues?

I own a HMO (5 self contained flats) and the tennants that live there are all hardworking Men. I visit every monday to clean the communal areas and if they are Home (shift workers/working from Home) they are always quiet and polite.
Parking is a nightmare because its a traditional street full of terraced properties.
Id only live somewhere if there was a drive!

The HMO is licenced and I spoke to another neighbour living near the HMO and they said landlord is quite strict with any complaints made and that they never had any issues

it's priced at the same as rightmove valuation

I live in an HMO. It is lovely.

@dizzydizzydizzy thats good

Many HMOs are professional people who can’t afford to rent a flat or work away from home during the week. We have 2 on our street: one is full of nurses and doctors from the local hospital; the other is full of people who don’t appear to work at all. It’s not a given what type you’d get 🤷‍♀️ people rent; it’s a fact of life.

But lots of people live in them... students amd young people for instance, even professionals. How do you expect young people to go directly from home to having their own flat, especially in cities?

There's a lot of snobbishness about them but they're needed.

ok if it's priced for condition against rightmove valuation its ok

the road is also quite narrow too
2 cars cannot drive in opposite direction down the street at the same time

I live next door to a hmo - we moved in before it became a hmo so I had reservations about it when I realised what was coming however, everyone who lives there is a professional and we’ve never had any issues

It would depend on the people in the hmo. We have 2 in our street. One is a nightmare. Rubbish everywhere as there are inadequate bins. Broken furniture in what was a lovely garden, parking on double yellow lines on a dangerous bend. Strong suspicions of drug dealing a few months back but that seems to have stopped.Local councillors are on it but it never seems to get much better. The other property has given noone any problems and seems to be young professionals.

We have one about 5 doors down - only became one last year. I honestly only know it’s a HMO because I looked it up when I saw the to let signs. No noise, no rubbish, bit annoying how many cars they have, rarely ever see a person to be honest!
My guess is ours is young professionals or post-grad students - we are a suburb of a university city with a major hospital about a mile and a half away.
I’d be much more concerned if we lived in one of the areas of town where students gravitate to, mostly because there’s more like to be noise when they’re coming in, and they’re probably less likely to keep the house looking nice.

My brother lives next door to an HMO. He has lived there many many years before it was turned into one. He lives in a quiet smart residential street near a beautiful park. He’s had nothing but trouble….police surveillance at all hours, police raids, even when the tenants changed it would still
go on. Their rubbish in the garden and the front of the house is disgusting. They’re loud at night. It used to be such a lovely tidy house and it’s an absolute dump now. My brother would certainly struggle to sell his house.

Don’t do it OP

the road is narrow too

Is the HMO for 7/8 Uni students?

@permanently its a 5 bed hmo

You keep mentioning the narrow road. Sounds like you don’t want to buy it.

I would avoid it. My relative is on a street of standard 3 bed semis but somehow they manage to fit about 100 people next door. Loads of cars parked down the street. I visited today and had to put some of their rubbish in the bin that they left in front of relative's house.

Only small positive is that they kind of provide 24 hour security/surveillance as constantly people in the garden.

Why not? What’s this big fear of HMOs? Is it a halfway house? My DD lives in one - she’s a uni student. Lots of young professionals live in them them as rent in London is so high.
So if you’ve asked around and it’s ok I don’t get why you are questioning it.

@mondaytosunday I live next door to a HMO. It wasn’t a HMO when we bought the house. They tried to make it an 8 bedroom HMO last year, which was rejected. Then I found out they’ve made it a 6 bedroom HMO without consultation this time and it passed. Since it was changed we’ve had a number of issues with weed being smoked outside. At all times of day and night. I had to complain to the council a number of times and I think the person who was responsible has finally been moved on. There is a HMO about 4 doors up from us, albeit much smaller. However, there has been nothing but issues with that one. Police raids, drug use and various other problems. Thankfully we haven’t had the brunt of issues with that as we are a few doors away. If I’d known next door was going to become a HMO I wouldn’t have bought the house.

I recently moved away from next door to an HMO. It became one four years after we moved there and was so-called 'supported' housing for addict and criminal men. For periods of time it was ok but there's always a few bad apples dealing drugs, bringing unpleasant people to the door, the relentless stench of weed and the odd fight. Never any loud music though. The turnover of people in these places is incredibly high and there WILL at some point be residents who do whatever it takes to ruin things for the neighbours.

I found out the house opposite was planned to be an HMO and worked with a group of neighbours to object. The owner tried twice but finally gave up and sold it to a family.

If it’s Uni students they sign an agreement to be quiet from 11pm onwards which helps. I would find out what type of renters they will be. Five renters, add a guest each, banging up and down the house at 3am, always shouting cos drunk, parties, rubbish out the back…but our HMO has been fine this year.

Also OP the landlord of the HMO is crucial. If they don’t care about the fabric of the building, they may not engage with roof/chimney repairs, fences and you will end up paying for it yourself (as in our case.) But if you love the house/street go for it X

Totally depends on what type of HMO it is.

If it's five professional people then I can't see it being a problem.

If it's five asylum seekers then I'm sorry to say but this would be a huge risk.