A property management service says some HMO tenants feel insecure because they know little or nothing about their housemates. 

A study by COHO suggests that 21% of HMO residents say they have felt unsafe at some point because of a housemate, with the figure rising to more than one in four (27%) among those aged 45 and over. 

Men (22%) were also slightly more likely than women (21%) to report having felt unsafe. 

Based on responses from 5,145 UK HMO tenants, COHO says raises questions around compatibility, transparency and maintaining safety across the UK’s shared living sector. 

Across England and Wales there are currently 482,788 HMOs, housing over 2m people.  

COHO claims there’s “a clear disconnect between the way shared accommodation is currently offered and what tenants actually want from their living environment.”

Around six in ten (60%) wish they had known more about their prospective housemates before moving in, while more than half (53%) want greater input over who joins their household. 

And four in 10 say they would be willing to pay more in rent to live with housemates they knew would be a good fit. 

According to COHO, landlords have also seen average shared living tenancies increase from 6 to 18 months when housemates are selected based on their compatibility.  

Vann Vogstad, founder of COHO, says the findings show that the shared living industry needs to rethink how tenants are matched into homes. 

“Our research exposes a major gap in the way shared living works today. We ask people to share their homes with complete strangers, yet in many cases they are given little or no information about who they are going to live with. 

“Tenants feeling unsafe in their own home, even once, is not something the sector can ignore.  

“There is also an outdated view that HMOs are simply student housing or a last resort for people who cannot afford to live alone. That is no longer the reality.”