24 July - How do HMOs operate?
It’s not something I have ever thought about. Once owners have permission for
an HMO do they advertise for tenants like a mini-hotel? I
had assumed that the Council had a hand in filling them, but maybe I am completely wrong.
I am not at all sure
what is going on next door to me but someone - Bexley
Council? - spent a lot of money on replacing smashed doors and fixing the garden which had been a jungle for
almost 20 years. It was ‘fixed’ by laying a tarpaulin over the bare earth and covering
it with shingle. It looks like the worst sort of bathing beach and I have no
idea where the rain is dispersed to. Early evidence is that it runs off into mine.
There is a constant stream of visitors of a wide variety of ethnicities. They
have not caused any problems and I don’t think it can be an HMO because the
accommodation would not lend itself to that purpose. Maybe I am jumping to all the wrong conclusions.
The same could be true of 35 Alexandra Road, Erith. It was one of a number of
premises that were noted on these pages as
all being bought on the same day and converted to six flat HMOs two
years ago. Presumably the same applies today.
Is it the owner or an enterprising tenant who is
letting
it as a bedsit?
Whatever the case the advertisement would raise the suspicions of someone who is
merely looking for a flat of the type I once rented. (Ilford. Late 1965. Hated it.)
One bedroom and two bathrooms seems rather odd to me and if there is a spacious living room and fully equipped
kitchen as the advertiser claims, why are there only five pictures of a crumpled bed and a shower head?
