Living with the hidden horrors of illegal HMOs | Letters

Readers respond to an article by Aditya Chakrabortty on the scandal involving houses in multiple occupationThe organisation complicit in allowing two illegal houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in my block of six flats is a housing association (The crimewave sweeping Britain? Illegal houses in multiple occupation, 24 October). The owners of the HMOs, both property companies, have rented their flats to up to eight single adults over the past 15 years. The flats are registered by the local council as suitable for renting to three unrelated adults.Aditya Chakrabortty’s description of the outside of the HMO he mentions, with its jumble of bags and suitcases, describes the front garden of my block to a T as long as you add in broken furniture and urine-soaked mattresses, which are eventually removed by the housing association. Inside the block, cockroaches can be seen crawling around the front door of one of the HMOs, and all of the block’s kitchens and bathrooms have been invaded by cockroaches that were released when the other HMO was undergoing major renovations. Continue reading...

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