Will a greedy landlord turn the house next door to you into an overcrowded slum?
It’s happening more and more – even in the nicest neighbourhoods
HOW proud Lorraine Barter was when she first moved to her imposing townhouse in Southampton. It was, after all, situated on a street described as the jewel in the city’s Edwardian crown.
The road’s 54 properties were lived in by respectable middle- class families. The front gardens were trimmed and tidy. Cars were parked considerately and children played on the litter-free streets.
Fast-forward 32 years, however, and Harborough Road is virtually unrecognisable. Gone are the freshly painted doors and sparkling windows. Instead, there’s a scene of filth and degradation: takeaway wrappers and cigarette butts litter the pavement; a sofa has been cast on to the street; a pink thong has been draped on a fence; a black high heel lies next to a pile of vomit.
The once-salubrious neighbourhood has been transformed beyond all recognition because of one thing: the family homes are now designated as Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs), meaning they have been broken up into bedsits and rented to multiple inhabitants.
Each bedroom, dining room and lounge is turned into a separate, often single-room, dwelling. Three- bedroom homes like Lorraine’s can sleep six inhabitants sharing kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Amenities are stretched to breaking point with pressure on parking spaces and rubbish collections. There are also problems with antisocial behaviour and noise. No wonder families living next door to these properties have banded together to create ‘No to HMO’ groups.
But it appears the problem is only going to get worse. This spring, changes came into force which stripped landlords of tax breaks on their mortgages. It will mean more will be tempted to turn their properties into HMOs, rather than renting to one family, as they can charge more to make up the lost income.
It’s also seen as a fail-safe option by landlords in times of economic uncertainty. One tenant out of six finding themselves unable to pay rent is much less problematic than a sole tenant falling on hard times.
Lorraine’s house is now one of just six on her road that’s still a family home. The other 48 have been split into bedsits for students at nearby Solent University. The surrounding roads tell a similar story. A staggering 80 per cent of houses in the area are no longer family homes. LORRAINE,
a 77-year- old retired shop worker, says: ‘It’s like a ghetto. When I moved here in 1985 it was such a lovely place. It was one of the best in Southampton. It’s a filthy slum now.’ Lorraine, a grandmother of two, lives with husband Jim, 77, a retired railway worker. She says things first started to change in the late Nineties after New Labour expanded university places.
‘We started to get all-night parties. Windows were smashed and cars were damaged. Families started to move out and things got worse.
‘There are bars and nightclubs a five-minute walk away and I am kept awake all night as drunk students make their way home.
‘I once saw a couple having sex in front of my house. I asked them to move away and they just gave me abuse.’
For many years, Lorraine, who has tirelessly campaigned against HMOs, has kept a diary of the impact the students have had on her life.
There are hundreds of entries detailing the selfish, inconsiderate behaviour: the drunken fights, smashed bottles, debauchery and countless sleepless nights she and her husband have endured.
It makes for grim reading: ‘May 1, 2015 — Woken at 03.30 by drunken men with pizza boxes, one lay on the pavement. May 2 — All-night party, loud music until 04.15am. May 8 — Mattress set on fire.’
Living amid such appalling conditions would be a great burden on anyone, let alone a pensioner in her late 70s. ‘Living like this for 25 years has taken its toll on me,’ says Lorraine. ‘I rarely get a good night’s sleep.’
The extra consequence of concentrated HMO areas is an increase in burglaries and robberies. Criminals know such properties can be easy, rich pickings. With so many people living in an HMO, security can be lax, and a haul of valuable devices such as laptops and mobiles await inside.
Lorraine knows this all too well. Last November, she was mugged by a man who followed her into her hallway. As he tore her handbag from her, she was forced to the floor and banged her head. She chased him, but he made off with her bag containing £40.
In a rare admission of guilt, her attacker, crack cocaine addict Mark Dythe, 52, handed himself in and was jailed for three years and nine months in January.
Lorraine says she was ‘fortunate not to have been killed’, but believes such incidents go handin-hand with living in such a densely populated area.
‘It didn’t used to be like this. Now, you can’t even peg your washing out without looking over your shoulder to make sure you’ve locked your door.’
So, are there restrictions on turning a family home into an HMO? Surprisingly few.
It is difficult to know how many HMOs there are in Britain. Data has not been collected since 2004, when local authorities were no longer required to carry out surveys of housing stock. The last survey showed that of 22.8 million UK households, 483,000 were HMOs. The figure will be far higher now and many go under the radar.
When they first started to spring up in the late Nineties, there were no regulations at all. But after pressure and campaigning from angry residents, the Labour government made it a requirement for all HMOs to have planning permission.
This was changed under the Coalition in 2010 for HMOs with fewer than five occupants. Now only councils that apply for an ‘Article 4’ order can require HMO planning permission. In practice, this is rarely applied.
Large HMOs, with five people or more, must obtain a licence, which costs £800 and makes sure properties are inspected and
adhere to fire regulations. There are 60,000 large HMOs registered in the UK, but of course there are unscrupulous landlords who convert houses without permission.
Dr Richard Tyler, 75, has also suffered from the blight of HMOs. The father of four, who is married to Monica, 75, has lived in Headingley, Leeds, for 45 years.
He was so upset by what he saw happening there that he founded the National HMO Lobby in 2000, which united concerned residents’ associations across the country.
‘HMOs started to crop up in the Nineties when universities expanded as the Labour government pumped money in. No one gave any thought to where these students would live.
‘It started with a few canny landlords who realised there was a gap in the market and snowballed. In Headingley, around two-thirds of properties are HMOs. We are outnumbered two to one.’
Like Lorraine, Richard is kept awake by students having parties. The streets of the once-pristine estate of Twenties semi-detached houses on which he lives are strewn with rubbish. Of the 50 houses there, 20 are now HMOs.
‘The population changes every year. Having someone urinate or vomit in my garden is the norm. You never know who’s going to move in or what will happen.’ RICHARD believes stopping homes being used in this way could help fix the housing crisis. He says students should be encouraged to live at home and study at local universities to free up housing.
‘I feel as if the heart of the community has been lost,’ he adds.
It’s not just the elderly who are saddened by their changing communities. Nursery worker Kady Knight, 29, lives with her mother Tina, 55, in Brighton, a city which is also plagued by HMOs.
Her street, once a respectable road of semi-detached houses, is now predominantly lived in by students.
‘It’s really difficult,’ she says. ‘So many times I’ve gone into work feeling drained. I could cry because I’m so tired. I like to go out and enjoy myself, but I have respect for others around me. They have parties that go on all night.
‘as much as we ask them to keep the noise down, they don’t care. I suffer with migraines and when it’s loud it brings on a headache. I have to lie with a pillow wrapped around my head.’
Kady’s mother Tina is a parking officer who has lived in the £320,000 property for 25 years and says things started to change about ten years ago.
‘I went around to complain last Friday because of the noise — I couldn’t sleep. It was 1.30am and they were having a party. They were at it again on Sunday — they say sorry, but just carry on.’
With cash- strapped councils facing more cuts, the other downside to the abundance of HMOs is that students are exempt from paying council tax. Jerry Gillen is the vice-chair of the National Organisation of Residents’ associations. He believes HMO landlords should pay business rates and that planning regulation breaches should be better enforced. ‘Many people will create an HMO and hope it’s not spotted. Something needs to be done. ‘ If they were more spread out, we would have a better chance of persuading them to be respectful. The situation at present means the students think it’s a massive halls of residence.’ However, David Smith, a lawyer and policy director for the Residential Landlords’ association, says house price rises mean HMOs can be the only way for some to afford a roof over their heads. He believes many of the complaints stem from snobbery and prejudice. ‘We just don’t have enough houses. HMOs are a response to the fact that lots and lots of people have nowhere to live,’ he says. ‘ They can change an area, which is why we need a balance between HMOs, rented family homes and owned homes.’ He adds that they will continue to grow in number as long as the Government continues with its ill-devised housing strategy.
‘The environment for landlords has become very tough. There is increasing taxation being put upon them by politicians who seem to think there are still enough houses. The Government has completely failed to come up with a proper housing strategy.’
along with students, migrants are another main occupant of HMOs. Former librarian Sheila Sullivan’s life was made a misery after seven townhouses on the quiet estate where she lives in Harlow, Essex, became HMOs for migrant workers. She put an end to it by pressuring the council into applying for an article 4.
‘I lived opposite one until a few years ago. It was very hard,’ says Sheila, 70. ‘ Noise was the main problem, plus all the cars. There was nowhere to park and they would be racing around at night.
‘There would be groups of men sitting outside all day and night: smoking, drinking alcohol and taking drugs. There were regular police raids and fights.
‘Families started to move out as they didn’t want to live here any more. I had to take action and, in the end, the landlords realised they had lost the battle.’
Meanwhile, the Department for communities and Local Government insists it is looking into extending licensing rules to include smaller HMOs, to weed out troublemakers and keep the situation in check.
For Lorraine in Southampton, however, it’s too little too late. Though she fears the community she loved is lost for ever, she insists she won’t be forced out.
‘I was born straight into World War II and I’m not going to stop fighting for my community. I won’t tire in trying to make this the peaceful and pleasant place it once was.’