Cons
Noise issues/complete lack of respect from student residents, who make up a large population of the building.
Staff’s attitude to receiving complaints.
The finish of my flat (broken window, poorly hung door frame).
Site wide electricity meter mix up.
Student residents – again.
Please review your development:
If you like the idea of living in a glorified student accommodation, then you might like living at the Copper House. I lived at the Copper House for two and a half years, and loved it for the first year or so before it fell off a cliff. It’s important to note the good things as there are plenty, the communal areas and rooftop are great and have a hotel feel, there aren’t many residential buildings with a better rooftop in Liverpool city centre, the gym has limited facilities but does the job and again looks great, each floor has a bin shoot which is convenient, there’s a free coffee machine if staff can be bothered to keep the water topped up, and of course the location is perfect for city centre living.
Unfortunately, the cons massively outweigh the pros. Firstly, there’s a site wide electricity meter mix up from when the energy provider won the contract to fit all 380+ apartments meters, meaning it’s very likely you’re paying for somebody else’s electricity. Apo have known about this since they took over the Copper House, and while I appreciate we’re private tenants so the onus is with us to sort out our own utilities, you’ll get very little support or sympathies and it’s very much on you to sort out the site wide issue that they’ve inherited, which is completely wrong in my opinion given I had to complain to the energy ombudsman before anybody bothered to do anything, and Apo were then asking me for advice for other individual cases.
The place has now became a glorified student accommodation. I had countless sleepless nights due to the noise on the inside of the building from these residents, I’ve knocked on countless doors to ask them to keep the noise down and each time was met with an apartment of lads who are just about growing facial hair and are no older than 18, all screaming and shouting, music playing. Apo management don’t want to know because they vacate the building each night by 8pm leaving a sole security guard to do their actual work for them. They’ll tell you what you want to hear to your face but couldn’t care less that the same apartments are causing the same issues the very next night. This is most weeknights, not only weekends. Naturally, if you allow students to move in, irrespective of where they’re from, then the communal spaces aren’t usable half the time as they’re occupied by their non-resident friends, then when they are available there’s trash, crisp packets, empty bottles left all over the couches, even after bins were provided, they’ve no respect at all for other residents.
I was very much made to feel like it was a problem that I often complained about noise issues when the reality is when you’d speak to individual staff members, they all felt the exact same way that I did about the lack of respect from certain residents who make up a large population of the building, but they left at 8pm and I was paying to live there.
My individual noise issues were exacerbated by the fact my window wasn’t fitted correctly in my living area, meaning it was stuck in an open position. It was left for four months before they had contractors out to attempt to fix it, and I was told how much it costs to get them out when I asked what the delay was, and this was during the height of winter.
I also don’t think Apo think other residents actually speak to each other, as you’ll soon come to understand that the majority of long standing residents feel the exact same, which is why I felt compelled to write an honest review, as I very much doubt the authenticity of some of the reviews I’ve seen on both here and Google.
I’ll miss a lot of the residents from all over the world which was one of the best things about living at the Copper House, but this is no place to live for young professionals. I think Apo needs to take note of the obvious issues and feed it back to investors before the place literally does become student accommodation.
Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:
1) how much of my time and energy the electricity meter mix up would take. I know new residents are still having issues as a staff member asked for my advice a week before moving out. Stop allowing people to move in without informing them. Especially people whose first language isn’t English when you know how complex the issue is.
2) that students would be allowed to move in. Greystar told us no students would ever be allowed to move in as this is ‘luxury city centre living’ and as this was one of my main concerns moving into the city centre. I appreciate Apo can’t be held responsible for what I was told by Greystar, but you only have to spend a couple of days walking around the building to see what it’s now become.
How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:
I never had a problem with the two maintenance lads in Graham and Dean, any time I raised a maintenance issue they were at my apartment within the hour and would say it how it is, I wish I could say the same for all staff.
