Personal experience of an HMO (ONE)
“I gained a short-term contract to provide temporary work cover at a university.
I found a room to rent in a three-bedroom HMO house a convenient distance from the university: I was in one bedroom, with two couples in the other two bedrooms. There was no shared living room.
My room was very gloomy, both from the large, very leafy, tree outside and the dark paint on the internal walls. The were no curtains, meaning the room was cold at night and the light from nearby streetlamps entered. So, I bought material and made my own.
There was only a thin duvet on the bed and no additional blanket, so I brought a blanket from home, along with a pillow.
Everything had to be transported on the train, put on a bus, and then carried from the station.
The rent was paid one month in advance, in accordance with a contract that could be terminated with a single month’s notice.
We also all contributed a third to the electricity bill, which I thought seemed fair, at least until one tenant repeatedly insisted on not shutting the fridge freezer door properly. Substantial extra electricity was then used to try to keep the inside cold enough, before the freezer iced up; we then had to call the landlord several times, using yet more electricity to restore the correct temperature.
Although smoking was banned, one of the couples ignored this, with their smoke then permeating the house.
In the (very small and shared) kitchen, there was a communal breadbin, which I was encouraged to use. I did, at least until somebody took my (expensive and high-quality) seeded wholemeal bread knife. The good bread knife I brought with me was also clearly being used by somebody else.
Although I always washed up the crockery and pans after use, other tenants didn’t, meaning extra washing up for the rest of us.
As the end of my first month approached, I was so depressed that I gave a month’s notice and left.”
Personal experience of an HMO (TWO)
“I lived in an HMO for four years, as it was all I could afford in the area at the time.
All the rooms were really too small for single occupants. To fit in my stuff, I gradually put up shelving that covered almost all my room wall space. I didn’t have a bed and instead put a narrow, moveable mattress on the floor. There was nowhere to park a bike, so I didn’t have one in the time I was there.
The lack of space resulted in me spending a lot of time outside engaging in pursuits that the city had to offer. This had other ‘knock-on’ effects: my costs rose, including because I had to eat out, and I was less able to save money.
In the winter, living on the top floor was an advantage, as I benefitted from rising heat. In contrast, summers were very hot, with the (inadequate) glazing not keeping heat out and the surrounding buildings reflecting heat into my room.
When I moved in, the communal stairs and kitchen were regularly cleaned by a relative of the landlord. This arrangement was, however, abandoned at an early stage, with the result that the kitchen and stairs deteriorated over time, culminating in a cockroach infestation: I had to block the space under my door with a towel to stop cockroaches coming into my room to search for food. They were only eradicated when the landlord used a lot of pesticide.
Access to, and use, of the kitchen depended on if somebody was using it, which included tenants smoking – which was not allowed.
There was remarkable turnover of tenants across the three floors and (one-room) basement flat. There were only two exceptions: me and an elderly resident; a relative of the landlord, whose reluctance to move may have been linked to some sort of special deal on the rent.
One tenant spoke to me as they were leaving, and claimed a neighbour was deliberately making noise at night so they could get them out and move a friend in. As far as I can tell, this is exactly what happened.
Living in an HMO does not make everyone an angel and is certainly not ‘communal living’.”
With thanks to the contributors.
See part one of this article for a discussion of the issues around HMOs.
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