Living next to HMO

[TulipsfromAmsterdam]

Recently heard the empty property next door is possibly going to used as an HMO. It's semi detached to us and just looking for any experiences positive or negative.
It seems to be the way developers are making money locally rather than renting out a family home to a family these days.

my house used to be an HMO before I bought it. my neighbours (it's also a semi) told me that if another landlord had bought it to rent out, they'd have sold up. their relief that a 'normal family' was going to move in was palpable!
ngl, my house was in a shit state from having had students in it for years, stained carpets, broken fixtures and a nice burn hole in the decking outside where they presumably made a nice camp fire?? can't blame my neighbours from having had enough!
so yes... I think it can go badly wrong with a HMO next door. depends on who moves in, are you in a university town too ? I think students don't make for ideal occupants!

Depends very much what sort of an HMO it is. They will also need planning permission and an HMO license, either of which could be denied.

Can be grim. I was next door to one where they drank all day, were pissed by 3pm and spent all night smoking dpliffs ilon the kitchen roof til they feel though it. Police were called a lot as they were so noisy at night and having lunch ups in the street too.

We have two HMOs near us. One is in the next street and became an HMO about nine years ago. They are in the process of turning it back into a family home. (I don't know why)

The other is three doors up from us. We hardly see anyone coming in or out and have never had any noise or ASB. I think they must all be professional people.

These are both semi-detached homes.

That said, I think I would actively avoid buying a house next to one.

There is also an increase in young professionals in HMOs, which are generally much quieter and not much bother, so pot luck but the type of area you are in and what other types of HMOs there are locally will give a clue of how it may be

Don't generally need planning permission unless 7 or more occupants unless it's a restricted planning area. HMO licence is only required if 5 of more occupants

It depends what sort of people live there, in an expensive area it may be single professionals, in a university town students (which might be loud), in a rough area it might be very cheap accommodation, run by unsavoury landlords, for people on the borderline of society and a lot of trouble.

The house next door to us ( terraced) was an HMO and was absolutely fine. They were very quiet, polite middle aged working singletons. No problems at all.

It has recently sold and is being turned back into an owner occupier family home, which I'm glad about, mainly because the previous landlord didn't look after the building very well.

We have one 2 doors down from us (it's the end terrace) and it's fine, I think it might actually be the quietest house on the street. Seems to be 4 or 5 people in there, all different nationalities, who go out to work every day. Only one of them has a car. They can generate a lot of rubbish though and seagulls can often make a mess of overflowing bins.

Increasingly used to house illegals or students.

Local to us we had an unlicensed HMO.
It wasn't a problem in terms of the tenants.

It was just the wrong place.
Small shared mews development with parking for one car per house.

Landlord let the HMO to a country house hotel as staff accomodation. Given the location of the hotel and the shifts each worked, the four tenants each had a car. They often had guests, also with cars.

They insisted in parking them in the centre of the mews blocking everyone elses access and parking. This includes access by an ambulance to an ill child.

Awful and landlord unconcerned.

The house next door to us became an HMO with students. They were all really quiet and didn't even have a TV.

Further down the road was an HMO with 7 students, horrendous noise all the time, more cars than space.

Lots of HMOs on my street. Only issue is they all have multiple cars and as no one has a driveway it can be hard to park. Other than that it’s a non issue.

When you mention HMO’s - you instantly think crime and ASB but with the ever increasing costs of private lets nowadays - professionals who are single are living in them.

I wouldn’t rule it out because you’re next to a HMO - I’d try and get some more information first about it and the calibre of tenants. Speak to the EA - do they know of issues? The vendor may not be as honest as to who is living there as their interest is to sell.
How are the gardens kept? That’s an indicator usually - by that I mean - is there much rubbish /junk?

I am a private landlord and whilst I’ll never become a HMO landlord, I did buy a HMO to convert into 3 self contained flats in about 2006 and the property itself was actually not too bad - I did obviously completely gut it though as I converted the property.

My friend lives near a HMO..3 bed house, with 4 couples living in it as living room must be a bedroom.
The house has 7 cars in total, parking became horrendous.

It really depends on the landlord and the set up.

We have one in our street, but it's all staff from the local hospital. No loud parties or the likes as they all work shifts. And crucially it has enough space for parking on its drive for each of the 5 rooms.

There's one a few streets away that has 6 people with cars and no off street parking. It's caused real trouble on a street that already had limited parking. And it's not helped by the fact they have regular super loud parties (that can be heard at a distance).

Asylum seekers are not illegals, @Papricat: anyone judged not to have the right to remain in UK loses access to Home Office-funded accommodation.

I used to live next door to one and they never changed their smoke alarm battery so it beeped every two minutes. It was a classic collective action problem: any of them could have changed it with very little effort and just a small amount of initiative, but everyone thinks its someone else's problem.

I think it's a mixed bag. I lived in serval HMOs before meeting my husband. Some were with people who didn't give a crap about the house /being good neighbours as they didn't own the home (if I'm honest this was mostly true in student HMOs). But the last one I lived in we were all young professionals and treated the house and our neighbours with respect. (and there was enough off-street parking for us all, which I know is a rarity).

I suppose you have the same risk if a family moves in, some are lovely and others are a nightmare!

Have you got off road parking as there may be lots of cars.

The HMO next to us had three cars, the family over the road had seven!

One near me, they’re all professionals, quiet, keep normal hours and only have 2 cars. The landlord stops by most weeks and might do small maintenance jobs and chats to me and a few other neighbours- I could definitely say something to him if there way a problem, but it’s probably the quietest house on the street!

We have 2 on our road all housing single men as they accept dss I think they may be immigrants I’m not sure that’s just my assumption as they don’t speak much English . No trouble at all. One of them regularly walks up and down picking up rubbish so no complaints from me !

As a previous poster has says, depending on the size of the house/ number of people it can accommodate, planning permission may be needed, and there can be restrictions on the number of HMOs in a street. I live in a city with a large university, and planning permission is needed if the HMO is for four or more people, plus only a certain percentage of houses in the streets in student areas can be HMOs, but I don’t think the restrictions are the same everywhere.

We have a few student houses in our street, but as they are quite small (three or four people), and so far they have all been well behaved ( no late parties etc), it’s been fine so far.

One just up the road from me… all professionals including a school gate dad who’s a police detective.
I do think this depends on where you live

The more respectable ones tend to have lots of cars to park.