There is huge demand for affordable housing in the private rented sector these days. HMOs fulfil this function by providing homes for people with socio-economical problems, whom might otherwise struggle to afford any other form of accommodation, or may not be eligible for other forms of social housing. This can be for several reasons which as a landlord Im sure you already know.
Without wanting to make sweeping statements, you only have to consider the type of people that reside in a typical HMO. They are people who generally aren't there through choice, or are there due to their personal actions or circumstances. Without access to HMOs tenants might otherwise find themselves in hostels, or even homeless.
Thus HMO tenants may be drug or alcohol abusers who have literally wittered their personal finances down the drain, or people whom have no means to support themselves and thus require assistance from local authorities thorugh housing benefits. Equally they could be persons whom have just left prison and need somewhere to stay until they can re-integrate back into society, they could be someone who has been refused other social housing due to their unsociable behaviour or lifestyle. They might be economic migrants, or indeed illegal immigrants. They could be someone who has just lost their job and everything they worked for,who feel pretty peeved with life. All of these people are vulnerable in one way or another because of their circumstances, frame of mind, behaviour etc.
And then there are students, many of whom find themselves away from home for the first significant period of time, fending for themselves (without parental supervision) so their inhibitions, and behavior may be different to what you might otherwise expect.
So hopefully you can see the potential risk tenants pose especially when you stick them together in a house. The landlord can't be there 24/7 and thus can never be sure what happens behind closed doors, and what the tenants are getting up to. You may rent a HMO to 4 great tenants and one bad one. All it takes is that bad tenant to put everyone else at risk. And that is why you need enhanced fire precautions.
If you look at the fire statistics you will see that people still die in dwelling fires. HMOs come into that category, the trouble is they are not always recorded as such by the fire & rescue service. Fire crews submit a fire report for every incident they attend, these reports help to generate statistics. Sometimes HMOs are incorrectly recorded as single private dwellings.
