What makes a great HMO?

14 comments

1. I’d pay a little more just to get the fuck out and into a Rental solo.

   Fuck HMO’s and everything about them.

2. The biggest thing that makes it great is living with friends. A place that isn’t that great but that you share with friends will be a more enjoyable experience than an amazing place shared with people you don’t like.

3. A fridge that is actually big enough for all the food.

   I hated that I had to go shopping every three days and was limited. I ended up buying a mini fridge for my room to hold my yoghurts and juice.

4. I was admittedly pretty lucky with the HMOs I lived in when I started working. All had a cleaner come in weekly to clean the common areas and bathrooms and as far as I could tell my housemates were all functioning adults so they didn’t absolutely trash the place or have all night ragers every weekend.

   Main things I liked:

   – big enough bedroom so I could keep have a full desk for my desktop PC and I could mostly keep to myself in there.

   – big enough kitchen with enough storage for everyone’s stuff including the fridge.

   – housemates who either keep to themselves or are at least politely friendly. As I said, functioning adults who can communicate and understand boundaries.

5. Playboy Mansion.

6. Group paying for cleaners for communal areas. No stress over who cleaned what etc etc. Keeping a note of each others usual bathroom times in the morning, kitchen times in the evening, creating subconscious slots.

7. Are you trying to be a cool landlord?

8. Landlords who don’t raise rent every time they can. I’ve had 2 landlords in a row who’ve never raised my rent once, about 3 years a-piece.

   Also one of them gave us crates of beer/cider for keeping the house clean.

   Dealing with problems quickly and inconspicuously.

   Having a gardener is nice if there’s a big garden.

   Day to day it’s great if you can live with like minded people. My last house share genuinely felt like a “family” which is very rare, and I’ve made friends who will probably be friends for life.

   My last HMO was mostly people in the 25-35 YO age bracket and my landlord let us choose the next tenant when anyone moved out. We deliberately avoided very young or very old people as we felt they would probably mess with the dynamic of the house. When we all started moving out the landlord decided to let students move in for the tax breaks and they were just a lot louder and less considerate than we were.

   Ethernet ports in each room because WiFi can be very hit and miss.

   Locks on bedroom doors are an absolute must.

   En suite bathrooms cut down on a lot of the annoyance of waiting for other people in the morning.

   One thing that’s hard to control – people not spending hours cooking. It can be tough when 2 or 3 people want to cook at the same time and that can be made worse by people treating it like it’s their own personal kitchen and hanging out for like 2 hours. Cook efficiently and get out so other people can use it.

9. Shorter minimum contracts so if you find its not for you you can leave.

10. Somewhere that lets me keep my bike in my room.

11. [removed]

12. People on different schedules so not everyone is using he kitchen and bathroom at the same time

    Separate toilet so you can use it even if someone is in the shower

    Well fitted doors to decrease noise and allow different rooms to be different temperatures

    Close to public transport as there won’t be room to park multiple cars

    Communal kitchen ware as long as it’s washed promptly can save a lot of storage space as then not everyone needs their own pans

    Good amenities aimed at young people, things like gyms are good but schools don’t matter

13. Some wishlist, some just good to do anyway;

    – A _big_ shared kitchen and living space. Taking every inch for a rented room is annoying AF.

    – A decent TV, with aerial, sat, and CATV sockets near by. With easy access to the ports. Don’t bother with streaming subscriptions.

    – Power sockets. And a lot of them (heavily recommend each room gets its own radial – easier to monitor which room might be taking the piss too).

    – A cleaner and gardener (if it has one) as inevitably you’ll put someone in there that is a pig. Also allow them to pay extra to include their rooms (they probably won’t take it).

    – Ensuites, where space allows. Charge them more too.

    – Thick walls. None of this plasterboard tent shit.

    – Advertising very clearly, the size of rooms, facilities, and similar. It is ok to have box rooms, sometimes it is all people want. But be clear about it.

    – Aircon and MVHR is amazing. Dehumidifers a must. Consider remote environmental monitors so you can get on top of mold-type issues quickly.

    – Giving other tenants the right to review and veto potential tenants, where reasonable.

    – 24/7 heating, with reliable individual room temperature control. If the boiler is firing, it is because someone wants heat. Let them have it.

    – Furnishings. No one really wants to bring their own matress (but don’t give them shit ones). But this does give you additional responsibilities. Provide a facility to remove them on request.

    – Landlord sorting bills so it isn’t passed from tenant to tenant which inevitably leads to conflict or something going wrong. You’ll need to protect yourself a little here from abuse, though. And don’t skimp on the Internet – if you can’t give the house more than 60mbit, then you shouldn’t be renting it as an HMO. If it is a professional or student HMO, strongly consider having two internet providers, and doing traffic shaping so YouTube uploads don’t interfere with someones real work.

    – Ethernet to rooms. Your WiFi deployment will be sub par, but do try. With Ethernet to rooms people have less cause to complain.

    – Good reliable appliances. No for example, combined washer-dryers or electric non-convention hobs. If you have more than 4 people, consider scaling the number of appliances approapriately. Give them a little booking system website too so they can reserve them. Get insurance to ensure their rapid repair (they will break often).

    – Ample space for cars, bikes, etc.

    – Don’t come in without notice and too regularly. Respond quickly to concerns. Act as fast as possible to remove tenants which are distressing others.

    – Shorter contracts. So if the tenant doesn’t like it they’re not stuck for 12 months.

    I’ve seen some HMOs with pool tables, hot tubs, reservable cars, games rooms, and even organised social calendars etc. These were very luxury. And even more selective.

14. Weekly cleaner, regular gardener, multiple bathrooms. Housemates that are willing to socialise sometimes, who are in a similar age bracket, and on slightly different schedules.

    Everyone has a set and decent amount of kitchen space. In my current place we all have a cupboard, shelf, a couple of shelves in the fridge and shelf in the freezer assigned to us. That way you don’t end up with one person hogging everything or everyone’s stuff mixed together and then they forget it’s there’s and move out so half the space is filled up with things that belong to people that don’t even live there.