AN HMO IS NOT A HOUSE
An HMO can be hard to spot. To an untrained eye, it blends in amongst the houses on a residential street. Unfortunately an HMO is most commonly identified by negative factors, such as:
Numerous overflowing rubbish bins obstructing the path; an overgrown front garden with leaf and rubbish build up; closed curtains covering condensation-filled windows; numerous poorly fitted key boxes; a tired general appearance; and an unsightly lettings board. This is all due to poor design and operation.
The most common misconception is that an HMO is the same as a normal family house, with a few more bedrooms. What was historically a 4 bedroom family home could easily be a 7 bed HMO. To a starry-eyed landlord, how hard can it be to convert a sitting room, a dining room and a study to form extra bedrooms. It’s simple, right?
In our research and experience, what we believe landlords get wrong is thinking: A house can easily be converted to an HMO and the work is quick. Job Done. They are then simple to maintain and the revenue flows in.
We have learnt through hard work and experience that an HMO can be more likened to a boat at sea. In our opinion HMO’s are “zero-down-time assets”. From the day they are tenanted they will never be empty until the next overhaul is due 15-20 years down the line. They can not afford or survive downtime.
Therefore they need to operate like a commercial boat. Deep-sea boats are rugged and robust, they survive long periods away from port. They are maintainable whilst under way, they have simple, easy to access systems. In the boating industry they use the term “redundancy”. This means that if a system or piece of equipment were to fail, there is a backup which can instantly be brought into operation, whilst the other is fixed. As an HMO operator, maintenance and fixes need to be undertaken quickly and with minimal disturbance to tenants. Redundancy has to be designed in.
HMO’s therefore need to be designed from a systems and materials perspective, throwing out the rule book of traditional homebuilding. They not only need to withstand adverse weather like normal houses, but they need to seamlessly manage the increased internal strain that extra bodies cause. A typical family home, is predictable in its usage and load. Families tend to cook one meal and eat together, they will wash in the the same bathroom at naturally staggered times and their laundry will be combined.
In contrast, an average HMO of ours has 8 tenants. 6 with en-suite bathrooms and 2 tenants sharing the 7th. These facilities could well be running at the same time, similarly a tenant coming off a nightshift will want hot water for a shower at 3 in the morning. Cooking is done individually, so is washing-up, laundry and the type of rubbish produced. Tenants have different work and lifestyle patterns, different hobbies and friendship groups. An HMO needs to recognise this in its design and offer a robust solution.
Hot water needs to be efficiently produced for use at all hours, excess moisture needs to be removed from bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. Storage and furniture needs to be carefully thought out. The use of soundproofing should be used to allow for a tenants routine that might run counter to another's. Gardens need to be thoughtfully designed with the correct foliage and ground coverings. Bin and bike storage needs to be offered.
We are convinced an HMO a is a home and not a house. A tenant should feel they are coming home, when approaching their front door, not navigating the results of a poor landlord consideration and greed. And to a trained eye, our HMO’s blend into a residential street. The only identifying factor are a series of ‘irrelevant 1%’ improvements in design and build quality that make the best property on the street.
