HMO or possible Tardis for sale.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on January 13, 2014 at 6:33

As I've been quoted I thought I may as well jump in.

There is a role for HMOs in the housing stock as long as it is developed with consideration to the mix of tenures in an area and the infrastructure to support people living there.

When I moved to London in 1978 I lived in a series of bedsits, as they were called in those days, for about 4 years. Regulation was light in those days and swathes of London were solid bedsit land. A street I once lived in in Ladbrooke Grove was all bedsits bar one or two single family dwellings. It was mainly awful. Their accommodation was uniformly dreadful, we had an interesting variety of indoor wildlife. I could have been, and was, evicted on the whim of the landlord, usually when he wanted to put up the rent. The streets were solid lines of dustbins and rubbish.

My experience was the norm pre regulation days, not the exception, and many people, me included, spent a lot of the time looking for the next place to live in Loot magazine and newsagents windows as we all knew we had no rights to remain in the home we lived in.

Unregulated HMOs (and by that I don't just mean unregulated in the sense of security of tenure and safety but allowing the development of them without planning) made some parts of London no better than shanty towns. I shudder at the thought of the market being allowed to do this again as the main motivation is profit with people way down the list.

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Permalink Reply by Finsbury Park Ranger on January 13, 2014 at 22:17

I totally agree with you jonny but let's face the facts, unless labour pull a massive bunny out the hat, a massive investment in housing anywhere near what's needed just isn't going to happen.

In that respect sadly the private sector are the only real players on the pitch. I totally agree tlandlords need to be well regulated and yeah why not, more prison sentences for corrupt landlords, bring it on. Let's take the properties off the really currupt ones and give them back to the state.

However for those willing to pay their taxes and make nice places for people to live at relatively cheap rents, let's bend over backwards to help them accommodate the next 2 million people who will shortly be coming to London and certainly let's not start brandishing the idea of converting flats back into posh houses for rich people as generally a good idea.

That's all I'm saying. What I'm worried about is that we start saying ' no room in the inn here' and start forcing up rents by protecting the area through prohibitive rules against houses of multiple occupation and start putting up walls to new comers with a vague anti market sentiment thrown around without any real serious drive to do anything about the housing crises as it currently stands,

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Permalink Reply by Cecilia on January 14, 2014 at 12:59

another one here, closer to where I live:

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/27813517?search_identifier...

how did they manage to fit 8 studios in there I don't know... and the overflowing bins at the front are a bit of a give away, aren't they?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on January 14, 2014 at 13:03

I have a friend who used to live in a house on Black Boy Lane identical to this one.  He occupied the whole of the ground floor in a very modest 1 bed flat.  How they fit 8 in here beggars belief.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on January 14, 2014 at 13:27

Time to rename Tottenham as Hutchingem?

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Permalink Reply by Mavic Starfish on January 14, 2014 at 15:10

6 flats in this 3 bed terrace

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/details/31021265?search_identifier=...

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Permalink Reply by Ruth on January 17, 2014 at 6:43

Sounds like a very dangerous place indeed. I bet there aren't many smoke alarms and fire exits… Terrible!

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