Neighbour running hostel from flat
Discussion
Hi,
I live in a fairly big block of flats, roughly 70 properties in a 9 storey building. One of the owners of a 2 bedroom flat has converted it into a 4 bedrrom hostel that he rents out to multiple folk.
The owner lives elsewhere which often results in tourists buzzing all the flats to get let in or wandering around the building knocking on doors asking where their hotel room is annoying many neighbours. The guests also tend to leave their rubbish in the stairwell as they're not told where the binshed is which is causing a bit of a smelly situation.
The front door as well as all the firedoors in the flat have been replaced with normal wooden doors with glass panes (they look fairly thing and flimsy). There's no doors seperating the kitchen from rest of the flat. Since he has added new rooms by building additional walls in the flat it means that there's some rooms without sprinklers.
I've checked the planning for the council and see no changes submitted to the council to change the property from a 2 bedroom flat to a 4 bedroom property nor any HMO declaration.
all of this sounds pretty dodgey to myself but who would I report this too?. Local council, fire safetc, factors etc?
I live in a fairly big block of flats, roughly 70 properties in a 9 storey building. One of the owners of a 2 bedroom flat has converted it into a 4 bedrrom hostel that he rents out to multiple folk.
The owner lives elsewhere which often results in tourists buzzing all the flats to get let in or wandering around the building knocking on doors asking where their hotel room is annoying many neighbours. The guests also tend to leave their rubbish in the stairwell as they're not told where the binshed is which is causing a bit of a smelly situation.
The front door as well as all the firedoors in the flat have been replaced with normal wooden doors with glass panes (they look fairly thing and flimsy). There's no doors seperating the kitchen from rest of the flat. Since he has added new rooms by building additional walls in the flat it means that there's some rooms without sprinklers.
I've checked the planning for the council and see no changes submitted to the council to change the property from a 2 bedroom flat to a 4 bedroom property nor any HMO declaration.
all of this sounds pretty dodgey to myself but who would I report this too?. Local council, fire safetc, factors etc?
KaiserDahms said:
The front door as well as all the firedoors in the flat have been replaced with normal wooden doors with glass panes (they look fairly thing and flimsy). There's no doors seperating the kitchen from rest of the flat. Since he has added new rooms by building additional walls in the flat it means that there's some rooms without sprinklers.
Yikes.andburg said:
channel 5- nightmare tennants and slum landlords
sounds like an unlicensed HMO
^^^^this, you need to contact the local council's environmental health department, or the block's management company. I am a registered landlord, leaseholder and director of a tenants management company, whilst i and many other landlords are registered, there are many property owners, leaseholders that do multiple lets under the HMG's room to rent scheme. the same avoiding paying tax on rental income, health, fire and safety legislation etc. etc.sounds like an unlicensed HMO
I've found the property on booking.com and a few other sites but not on Airbnb. Did a bit of a visual inspection on the doors and they're definately not fire doors as they are standing open with nothing proping them up (as far as I understand firedoors should close themselves).
Don't see any fire safety messages on the walls etc which I've seen in plenty of student flats with HMO's.
A further annoyance has been that the guests are given the remote clickers to get into the garage and park wherever they want as he doesn't have an actual space for them. This has resulted in quite a few arguments already.
Don't see any fire safety messages on the walls etc which I've seen in plenty of student flats with HMO's.
A further annoyance has been that the guests are given the remote clickers to get into the garage and park wherever they want as he doesn't have an actual space for them. This has resulted in quite a few arguments already.
KaiserDahms said:
I've found the property on booking.com and a few other sites but not on Airbnb. Did a bit of a visual inspection on the doors and they're definately not fire doors as they are standing open with nothing proping them up (as far as I understand firedoors should close themselves).
Don't see any fire safety messages on the walls etc which I've seen in plenty of student flats with HMO's.
A further annoyance has been that the guests are given the remote clickers to get into the garage and park wherever they want as he doesn't have an actual space for them. This has resulted in quite a few arguments already.
Looks like you've got enough proof to get in contact with your local authority. Don't see any fire safety messages on the walls etc which I've seen in plenty of student flats with HMO's.
A further annoyance has been that the guests are given the remote clickers to get into the garage and park wherever they want as he doesn't have an actual space for them. This has resulted in quite a few arguments already.
Given the current situation this is possibly the best time to tip off the council. Especially If they have replaced fire doors that aren't theirs to replace. They know the consequences of neglect and incompetence in the extreme after the Grenfell slaughter.
Unless your council is Kensington and Chelsea i'd say they would be on it like a bonnet.
Unless your council is Kensington and Chelsea i'd say they would be on it like a bonnet.
A different tangent, if you can find the valve set for the sprinklers see if there's a test card attached as they are commonly issued by the insurers. If you can find it call the insurer and advise them flat no so and so has illegally subdivided and sprinklers no longer cover some areas. They will threaten to cancel the insurance which with the recent news will possibly make it impossible to insure. You can be sure the landlord won't want this to happen and will ensure rectification happens pronto.
elanfan said:
A different tangent, if you can find the valve set for the sprinklers see if there's a test card attached as they are commonly issued by the insurers. If you can find it call the insurer and advise them flat no so and so has illegally subdivided and sprinklers no longer cover some areas. They will threaten to cancel the insurance which with the recent news will possibly make it impossible to insure. You can be sure the landlord won't want this to happen and will ensure rectification happens pronto.
Surely he'll not be bothered about contents, and a withdrawal of the buildings insurance for the block would just screw over the rest of the leaseholders?Blue Oval84 said:
elanfan said:
A different tangent, if you can find the valve set for the sprinklers see if there's a test card attached as they are commonly issued by the insurers. If you can find it call the insurer and advise them flat no so and so has illegally subdivided and sprinklers no longer cover some areas. They will threaten to cancel the insurance which with the recent news will possibly make it impossible to insure. You can be sure the landlord won't want this to happen and will ensure rectification happens pronto.
Surely he'll not be bothered about contents, and a withdrawal of the buildings insurance for the block would just screw over the rest of the leaseholders?KaiserDahms said:
all of this sounds pretty dodgey to myself but who would I report this too?. Local council, fire safetc, factors etc?
Planning: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=18...Housing: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=18...
elanfan said:
No one mentioned contents. Reread my last line. The threat to remove cover is usually very powerful as it would mean it would have to be declared to the next insurer. I doubt a new insurer would take on the cover without surveying in general and in particular the flat at issue. They'd probably resurvey regularly to keep an eye on things too.
But my point is, trying to screw up the buildings cover for the block will make things more difficult (read, expensive) for every leaseholder.We currently pay £850 per year per flat for buildings only cover in our block of 50 flats. If someone decided to deal with a problem the way you're suggesting, and made our insurance even more difficult than it already is then I would personally be less than impressed. Especially if the council should already be dealing via other means.
I mentioned contents purely to confirm that you didn't just mean reporting him to whoever insures his individual flat for contents, as trying to get buildings cover revoked for a whole block seems pretty, erm, ballsy!
The point is it shouldn't actually come to that, if it did happen I'd have thought everyone would be rather pissed off with the individual.
£42500 premium for a block of residential flats sounds quite a lot to me but then I'm a bit out of date on rating. Suggest you get a quote for the block as a whole - it wouldn't be the first time a block was over insured with someone somewhere profiting on the deal.
£42500 premium for a block of residential flats sounds quite a lot to me but then I'm a bit out of date on rating. Suggest you get a quote for the block as a whole - it wouldn't be the first time a block was over insured with someone somewhere profiting on the deal.
elanfan said:
£42500 premium for a block of residential flats sounds quite a lot to me but then I'm a bit out of date on rating. Suggest you get a quote for the block as a whole - it wouldn't be the first time a block was over insured with someone somewhere profiting on the deal.
We're absolutely positive that someone, somewhere, is profiting rather nicely. The freeholder set up their own separate Ltd management company to deal with collecting ground rent, and providing buildings insurance. All the maintenance issues are hived off to a totally separate managing agent that they have no financial stake in.The cynic in me believes it's because managing multiple contracts for gardeners, parking wardens, cleaners and building works is a lot more hassle than just setting up the buildings policy and collecting ground rent. They even had the cheek to charge a £20 per flat admin fee for setting up the policy as required under the terms of the lease. They removed it from mine when I pointed out this breached the lease.
Unfortunately, we have had several water damage claims per year for the last few years, so I suspect that the insurers are taking a cautious approach. We're trying to get a grip of that through the agents who it appears have submitted water damage claims amounting to as little as £200 over the excess. Our excess is now £1,000 per water claim, we've said we'd rather just pay the claim from our own funds in a bid to bring the insurance down!
But I note that our building with just 50 flats (two separate 6 floor blocks and two small 2 floor blocks) are insured for the same amount as Grenfell Tower!
Sorry for thread diversion OP
That set up is nearly a dream for the insurers - maximum block say 20 flats out of 50 fire spread unlikely between seperate blocks so EML (Estimated Maximum Loss which is unlikely unless you have Grenfellesque cladding) =. 40%. Even more reason to quote keen terms - if water claims continue they'll put a very large excess on so just about the only thing that will generate a claim will be if a mains water pipe or tank bursts at the top and water cascades down through the block damaging everything in its path and saturating the concrete etc.
Sounds like you need to tell the other residents to claim back their admin fees en masse, see about buying your freehold between you and setting up your own company to manage premiums and maintenance etc. Doubt it would be very long before you are effectively in profit plus owning a share of your freehold.
Sounds like you need to tell the other residents to claim back their admin fees en masse, see about buying your freehold between you and setting up your own company to manage premiums and maintenance etc. Doubt it would be very long before you are effectively in profit plus owning a share of your freehold.
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