Hackney residents slam landlord’s plan for two large HMOs

Poor insulation on the Clifden Road property was said to have stoked a criminal incident involving police. Image: Google

Hackney Council has blocked the creation of two large houses in multiple occupation (HMO) after residents raised alarm bells over criminality and poor living conditions.

The Town Hall’s planning committee was last week set to approve a bid to convert two family-sized houses in Clapton into large HMOs, with up to seven and nine tenants in each respective building.

The existing properties are already classed as small HMOs, and the landlord had started works to add more rooms to let – only now seeking retrospective planning permission to do so.

But residents and local councillors voiced concerns that the landlord was already squeezing people into one house on Clifden Road.

The six-bedroom property has poor sound insulation, which the critics argued had brought “very little intimacy to residents” and had led to conflicts, including a criminal incident involving the police.

“One of the residents told me his room felt like a prison cell, the kitchen was filthy and very hot in the summer,” said neighbour Stephanie Baker.

She added that another resident with complex issues “used his room as a toilet for months”.

The resident told planners the landlord had a poor track record of housing vulnerable individuals, including asylum seekers, and had not taken “any responsibility for the wellbeing” of his tenants.

The same landlord had previously failed to get permission to convert his Blurton Road property into a 10-bed HMO. Image: Google

The landlord’s similar bid for an even larger nine-bedroom HMO at nearby Blurton Road triggered more objections from residents, who claim there is already a glut of similar shared houses on their street. They suggested more would worsen local crime and disorder.

Again, this property is already operating as a small HMO, which the landlord has permission for, but the new application sought to increase the number of people living there.

“There were two armed raids on our street in September in properties which were actually licensed,” said Eva Rothschild.

Though it is not clear if she was referring to large HMOs, the resident added that the application was not in keeping with Hackney’s Local Plan, which aims to maintain “balanced” housing.

The landlord said the raids had “nothing to do” with his property.

Ms Rothschild was joined by Labour councillor Margaret Gordon, who agreed there had been “serious criminality arising from unsuitably developed and managed HMOs” in this part of her ward.

She urged the committee not to reward the landlord’s behaviour for starting the works before first receiving planning permission.

The landlord made a similar bid in the past to convert a property into a 10-bedroom HMO at the same site, but this was rejected after it failed to show that it would be suitable for low-income tenants.

Cllr Gordon said it was not right that a “substantially similar” application should be given the green light now.

On behalf of the applicant, Josh Meyers said although there may have been “historic complaints” with the existing HMO, the question was about adding an extra bedroom, which was a matter for planning law, rather than management of the property.

But in the end, six of the committee members voted against both.