We purchased a house in Saffron Walden in Sept 2019 and yes we have had standard snagging issues but also some major issues and the customer service up to MD level has been shocking.
The overall attention to detail in the homes is terrible. On completion day we actually raised issues with our carpet and flooring downstairs, we still have not had this rectified and now in an internal battle with them.
Our turf was laid and they are quoting its normal….well we followed the maintenance regime and its coming up, bald patches, you sink in it and there are rocks everywhere. Not really the best when you have a 2.5yr old.
Our solicitor raised with us that Linden homes tried to resubmit different boundary plans for our property which meant we had some land missing from our plot. So underhanded and their solicitor admitted an admin error.
Due to a 10 day response and me chasing this for our formal complaint to the MD, he threw a shocking response to us, backtracked everything that was approved and said it was all normal and customer service were in their target KPI for responding.
Once they have your money, the customer care goes our the window.
Whilst we love the house and location, I would advise people to think twice before buying and do your own flooring and turf.
Throughout the 6 months we have been here, they have ceased working with 3 different contractors which has not helped the situation.
Love the area, very accessible to shops and the main town. Cant fault the location
I would never have turf or flooring done
Their customer care after sales up to MD level is shocking. The turf is normal apparently for Linden homes and we have carpet coming up, glue, cuts on flooring all noted on completion and apparently its our tough luck that we wont get colour matching carpet as they will only change one bit.
Overall attention to detail is so bad, its a production line and they bully you to exchange and complete so they can have the money but any care and especially after care is appauling considering the prices they charge.
Decent finishings, turf which isnt coming up and sinking with rocks everywhere and the customer care
I decided to rent a flat at Merchants Walk because of the distance away from my work as it is conveniently only a 30-minute walk away. I am tied to the Canary Wharf area because of this.
It was quite smooth moving in, there were a couple of issues but nothing too bad. They are usually fixed if you flag it quickly, so I am quite happy with the management on the site. They were quite responsive when I had a leaking window and came to fix it very quickly. We do have a concierge service, which is useful to have, who are open 4 days a week and they collect our packages. I’m not sure if we have any CCTV cameras but I have never had any issues with safety in the development. There is a lock on the front door and an additional one past the foyer. I find it to be relatively safe.
We do also have a garden on the site, which is a nice touch, but I don’t not use it that much, but it is well-kept with lots of nice trees and flowers and it’s a nice place for children to play in. I wish there was a gym included.
The building of the development has been well thought. The height of the buildings could have been better thought out as people living on one side don’t get a great view. My flat itself looks very clean and modern with all the appliances up to date because the building is new. It is a very spacious and bright flat with lovely big windows with a view towards East London. Inside we have three bedrooms, and two are very large. The other is a bit smaller, but I don’t mind. We also have two bathrooms, which is a luxury. We live in a furnished apartment but have been able to personalise our flat through adding in various home accessories. I do also have a spacious balcony, which leads out from the living room. We have put a chair and a small table on it and it’s nice to use during the summer as at least 7-10 people can fit on it. It can get very hot in the morning, above 25° especially in the summer. We are able to open our windows but there is a security feature in place, which means we can’t open them all the way. My flatmates and I now have fans in our rooms.
There are some resident events put on by the building’s management but there are more for families and I am not really interested in them.
The area is becoming better with easy access to the city via the DLR line, which goes to Bank. You can also take it to get to Stratford. It is a 30-40-minute walk to most areas, like Bromley-by-bow so it is a good compromise. There is not a lot in the area to necessarily do, apart from a couple of shops and a small Tesco only a 3-minute walk away. A larger Tesco is about a 15-minute walk away.
Everything was explained to me very well about the flat.
Management were responsive when I had a leaking window and fixed it pretty quickly.
The development overall seems to have been well designed and the central green gives it a feeling of space and community. Once the play area is opened up it will be lovely for young children to play there. There are, however, no other facilities – not even a dog poo bin or post box actually on Bramble Park! There is a distinct lack of visitor parking spaces.
We are pleased with our house but, obviously being new, there were a few little issues wrong with it and, since the original site manager, Steve, suddenly left, it has been very difficult to get anything sorted. An issue we reported in October 2019 (well before the pandemic) is only going to be sorted this month. There seems to be a very high turnover of customer service staff and it is hard to know who to contact, although things seem to have improved a little since Craig arrived.
One of the main issues with the properties seem to be the gardens – hardly any top soil was put down before the grass (which was infested with leather jackets) was laid and people are having to spend a fortune to try to get their lawns into a good condition. Some people have considerable problems with flooding as no drainage was put in their gardens. Th faulty of the fencing supplied for our gardens was very poor, in our case we have had to have some of it repaired three times.
Also trees were planted on the central green and no-one ever came to water them – consequently many have died. There also seems to have been a problem with commissioning the street lighting – no-one knew where the cables had been laid and the land had to be dug up to find them. The central green has also been dug up to put cables in and just left looking dreadful – no-one seems to know when or if it will be returfed.
Jobs on the estate seem to be started and then just left – for example the final section of path leading to the village has been more or less completed and then just left with fencing around it so it cannot be used. There seems to be no desire to complete one job before going off somewhere else and starting something else.
As for property management – we are all paying Gateway for a non-existent play area; electricity for lighting that is not on; roads that are not swept and are very muddy amongst other things. All we ever see done by the management company is occasional grass cutting of communal areas, we are not sure what they are using our money for.
We love the local area. Since the path at the side of the development has opened up we can walk to the village in about ten minutes – there isn’t a great number of shops but enough for day to day needs; the Health Centre, community centre/library and Dentists are very convenient and it is lovely to have the Meadows in which to dog walk. It is also nice to be so close to the coast. So far it has been very quiet living where we do (opposite the green) although once the road is opened up there may be a little more traffic. At night it is exceptionally quiet, can hear a little traffic noise from (I presume) the A23 but mainly the only noise we hear is owls! However, there is a bit of a parking issue on the estate – I do not feel enough visitors’ car parking spaces were allowed for in the original plans. At the moment the building contractors are also parking all over the place, particularly on the main Iden Hurst – on bends etc. – which is very dangerous and often causes people to have to reverse when meeting other vehicles on corners. I feel the development needs some road signs warning people to drive slowly coming around the main entrance road as children are often playing there and I would hate there to be an accident. It is particularly dangerous at the entrance to the green, between number 47 and 60 Iden Hurst. Maybe there should be a 20 mile an hour limit?
The quality of the garden.
Although only a three bedroom house it is spacious and airy and we love the clips on the windows which allow them to be safely left open even when we are out. The heating and hot water system are very efficient.
the property itself is great. Its a new build so the apartments are a really good quality. The white goods are OK, though the oven and washer/dryer are from whirlpool which I don’t rate as a brand – they tend to make cheap products that don’t have a long lifetime. The garden on the 3rd level is a nice touch however given that there are three parks within half an hours walk the garden doesn’t often get used by myself or other residence (though the times I have used it I have really enjoyed my time)
There is a deliveroo editions / dark kitchen in the lockups next to the flat. This means there are a lot of scooters coming up and down the roads. I don’t see this as much of a problem because the fact we can get reqlly good quality sushi or wing (piping hot out of the fryer) in around 10 minutes is a huge bonus.
There is a helipad just outside the flat block. As this is the closest helipad to central London it does get a reasonable amount of action and can be quite loud. That being said, the triple glazing on the flats blocks the sound out incredibly well. The only time this is a problem is when you are either sat on the balcony, or it’s hot and you have the windows open and even so there’s max 3 or 4 flights a day and the noise is about for 2 minutes.
The people in the community of this development are so-so. There’s a bunch of really nice and neighbourly people that live here, and then there’s a handful of people that only think of themselves leading to them complaining about stupid things because they feel entitled to. You’ll always get people like this in any community but it does ruin it for everyone else.
The management company are pretty useless. They take forever to respond to any questions and often only solve part of the problem ignoring the rest. They are also terrible at keeping track of payments. They almost took us to court over a payment we had already paid which was ridiculous.
Overall I would definitely recommend this as a place to live. There are some small downsides to this place, however being in this apartment more than ever because of the lockdown, this has been an absolute life saver of a place to live. The new flat and decent bright space and the private garden were exactly what was needed to get us through.
There aren’t many restaurants within 5 minutes but falcon Road and St John’s Hill are not far so cover that off nicely. Both the ship and the waterfront pubs are within around 10 minutes walk whixh is excellent. There is a co-op 5 minutes away which is convenient for small shops, but there’s also an asda about 15-20 minutes walk away which while far is convinient if you have a car and want to do a big shop. Having clapham Junction nearby is really handy, I used to take that into work every day. The bus links are plentiful however they can be quite slow during commuter times. Since lockdown I have cycled more and really discovered how continent the waterfront cycle path is. Overall, this is a pretty good place to live. The best part is that you are close to decent shops, restaurants, and bars. The worst is probably transport links though they are still pretty decent
A bit more about the local area – shops and pubs would have been good. Also, there’s a development going on nearby which is a great thing. More information on the phases of work and the plan would be great as this will inevitably change the value of the property for the better so being able to plan a little more around that in terms of selling would be excellent but that just a small detail. Overall really happy with the property
The large triple glazed windows are great. Having lived in a number of other flats in London you often don’t get much natural light, and can hear the buzz city. These windows give loads of light and effectively block out the noise
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