A guide to living in Borough of Brent

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The local area offers many great shops, cafes, bakeries (such as Bread Ahead), and parks. There is rarely any anti social behaviour because of the persistent surveillance monitoring and presence of security & police.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Not yet, but they always quickly call any technician to fix.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Make sure to always ask to view all facilities in a building.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Wembley Park offers a diverse range of amazing restaurants and grocery shops, there is a Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Amazon Fresh at a short 3 minute walking distance. And I am really enjoying the range of parks around the developments!

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

I haven’t raised any issues so far, but they responded and resolved a issue in the gym promptly and quickly.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I would recommend to always walk around the area before viewing a place.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Lots of new shops and restaurants opening all the time which is nice and keeps the area quite lively. The transport links are excellent as Ark is very close by to Wembley Park station. Parking availability could be better as although there is parking for residents, it doesn’t seem like there is any for if you have guests over and they need somewhere to park for short stay.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Very very poorly unfortunately. I have had an issue with my air conditioning not working ever since I moved in (last summer) and although it wasn’t an issue during winter months, it has made the summer pretty unbearable to be in my own room. The fact my room has been hotter at times than the outside temperature, during heatwave periods too, is ridiculous and Ark have been completely unhelpful with this situation. I have raised maintenance requests for this, reached out to the management team, even requested for regular updates so I know the situation is being handled and I have still heard nothing regarding it. I have been more than patient with this issue and understand it takes time to fix, but not communicating anything with me regarding it is really disappointing and annoying.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Laundry room does cause quite a lot of issues at times when many people are using it - not enough washing machines and people do tend to just leave their washing in the machines for long periods of time.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Good: lots of local shops and restaurants like in the designer outlet, Nike is great for buying sportswear. There are also lots of restaurants here and new shops opening constantly in the area. Transport links are excellent - jubilee and met line can get you to pretty much anywhere in central and they rarely have delays too. The road Ark is on is really quiet and it makes such a difference on event days - I can never hear anything from my room. Bad: Parking isn’t so readily available. There are spaces for residents but it’s not so easy to have parking for if you have guests coming for the day etc and the Wembley stadium car parks tend to be very pricey. Would be great if Ark allowed guests to use the car park even if there was a small charge involved for this. The bin room is a little bit difficult to get to and quite isolated.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

They have come to see the issue usually within 48 hours. One issue I have had for quite some time now has been ongoing and I do wish they’d give me updates on the situation however they do not, even though I have requested it.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

The TVs in the rooms are not smart TVs. It is difficult to lift up the bed for underbed storage as the mattress is quite heavy

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Wembley park is just great. All buildings are new and it feels safe to wonder around at night. Ark is 10 min walk to the station which is great

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

They tend to be pretty fast on solving any type of issue you have

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

That there are water filters upstairs so no need for your own filter