When we discovered this development, the website stated that there would be an on-site concierge to deal with deliveries. When we came to view our flat, there was a manned desk at the door that we were told would be present every day. As soon as the building filled up, Fizzy removed the desk and moved it to the building next-door in order to sell the same to new residents. After questioning Fizzy, they removed all mentions of the concierge from the website.

This would not be an issue if this were a safe area, however unfortunately almost every resident here has had parcels stolen at some point. Just last weekend, the door to the communal “F Club” was smashed open. A few months prior, Fizzy’s office was broken into and their laptops stolen (which they chose not to notify us about). One resident even had their belongings stolen from the lobby when they were moving in!

Fizzy refused to do anything about the security issues for multiple months, and even lied about their intentions. We were told that the concierge was never intended to be permanent, and that “operationally, it is no longer needed”.

It was not until we formed a tenants’ union and requested a meeting with them that they agreed to put a member of the property management team in the lobby from 9-5 Monday to Friday and a security guard out of hours. We have been told this is a temporary solution, so in Fizzy fashion it is likely this will disappear again at some point.

There is no adequate signage for the development. Receiving deliveries is a lucky dip – you never know which building the driver will go to! Almost every delivery driver complains about the lack of signage. We have reported this to the Fizzy team a number of times, their solution was to install a small plaque on one of the buildings (which, to nobody’s surprise, did not resolve the issue). Even the emergency services are unable to reliably identify the building. We are told that this will be improved with some larger vinyl signs and totem poles in the future.

The internet, which was one of the positive things I commented on previously, no longer works in the evenings and this will be the case for the foreseeable future. OFNL (the network provider) have said that there is not enough capacity for the size of these buildings. Fizzy were notified of this in December but did not notify residents of this due to their email servers being down when the email was sent.

The quality of the finish in the units is very poor. The paint used is water-soluble, so any water on the walls (including the kitchen backsplash!) will cause the paint to smear and/or rub off. The paint on the walls and skirting boards chip and flake off extremely easily. The vinyl flooring has been glued to the heated floor, causing the glue to melt and vinyl to come off.

The bin room is almost always full, due to some residents who are extremely lazy and cannot pack down their recycling or even put it into a bin. This, along with a leak, led to there being rats in the bin room for a long time…. although I am told that they are gone now.

Almost every issue that you bring up to the property management team will be deflected on to a third party. Due to the fact that this is a new build, it is currently in a “defects period”. This means that any issues have to be resolved by the building contractor (Vistry), rather than Fizzy’s own suppliers. Unfortunately, Vistry are useless, and will leave you waiting for repairs for weeks. As much as I appreciate that Fizzy cannot do anything about the third parties they are required to work with, they cannot in good faith say that this is “hassle-free renting”.

Post doesn’t seem to arrive half of the time, and when it does, it’s weeks late. I’ve made several complaints with Royal Mail but not one has been followed up on. I’m missing multiple cards from over the holiday period.

The referencing process was a complete failure, with Fizzy telling me I was not earning enough money to afford the rent. In the end, we had to delay our move-in by a week in order to give Fizzy enough time to complete the referencing. This was a week of rent that we paid for and never received because we were told it would be too much paperwork to change the contract.

My surname was spelled wrong on half of my documentation, which is just pretty demoralising to be honest. I spent plenty of time on the phone to suppliers asking them to change my surname because Fizzy got it wrong.

Oh, and if you want to book the communal spaces you have to pay for them now. And pay for them to be professionally cleaned. Great, right?

In general, living here has made me feel stressed, and at times, unsafe. I would recommend waiting for a few months before considering moving to Fizzy. Not only to give them time to resolve the litany of issues that we are experiencing, but also to give them a chance to reconsider their pricing, as the value they provide does not match the current price tag.

Although Fizzy have promised to resolve some of these issues, there is just no way that anyone could consider this a premium rental experience. I feel like I have fallen for a bait and switch scam.

The only positive thing I have to say is that the majority of residents here are fantastic. I have met a lot of great people here, and we have all been united by our shared resentment for Fizzy Living.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

With the Hallsville Quarter development in full swing, the number of local shops and restaurants keeps increasing. This is exciting and makes up for the noise and dust created by the ongoing construction.

Living next to Canning Town station continues to be useful, and this will only get better as Crossrail stations open nearby at Custom House and Canary Wharf.

Waste management is a big issue in the area. The streets are always littered with rubbish, and bins are not collected on time.

The noise from traffic and the trains is immense. Residents on the track-side were advertised that there is “no noise” but the trains are definitely audible 24/7.

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

* Make sure you listen to the ambient noise levels when you view
* Don’t get scammed by the pet license (some residents do not pay this)
* Read the contract! A lot of the things that are advertised by Fizzy are not actually provided

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

Residents have repeatedly brought up the security issues for almost 6 months, and got ignored by Fizzy every time. It took two break-ins, tens of thefts, and multiple residents complaining before any action was taken.

We came across Fizzy by browsing for Pet Friendly properties (we have a little pooch, which we found that most new builds don’t accept), and totally fell in love with the place. We moved into the apartment which for the first few weeks we thought was completely new and nobody else lived here (later found out they did – for two years!). The apartment was cleaned to a super high standard, great appliances, crazy fast internet (we currently have the 150mb upload and download which is perfect for my work) and best of all the service has been fantastic.

Our building manager Helen has been super helpful and and always dealt with every issue (there hasn’t been many), and having concierge to sign for parcels has been another thing we didn’t know that we (now) couldn’t live without.

The rooftop is really nice (especially in the summer) and so there’s been some great parties organised by the management (fee booze!!).

There is also a pet station downstairs with wet wipes and doggy bags which is useful for rainy days and when you forget stuff in the flat.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Close to rail networks and local shops, nice food places like the sparrow and Middleton.

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

Parking for cars is tricky, and couriers have some trouble of finding the building as it’s off the main road and there are no sign posts leading towards the entrance

They also pick up parcels which is a plus! It is also pet friendly which I think makes it a more enjoyable place to live.

I feel very secure in the building too because of the security system in place.

The only downside at the moment is that there is a building site next to the apartments, but when those flats are completed it will be fine.

I haven’t given a 5* rating because when we moved in we did notice some minor issues with the flat which took a while to get fixed. I also think the living room area would benefit from 2 radiators rather than the 1 we have because it is a big space.

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

I wish that i’d have known if you pay your rent even one day late you are charged! My card was not updated on the portal after I lost it, and we incurred a £25 fee on top of our already expensive rent!

—

I feel like I’ve aged three years since I moved to East16 in September 2021, because it sure has been one rollercoaster of a ride.

Let me start at the beginning. First of all, when we first got in touch to do a viewing, it was almost impossible to get ahold of anyone in the lettings teams. I called multiple times and sent countless emails over many days, only to be ignored or told it was a bad time and that I’d get a call back. When I finally managed to secure a viewing, we fell in love with the flat itself (on the surface, it seemed perfect…) We quickly found out that only 4 floors in Falconbrook Gardens are actually pet friendly, despite the adverting saying the entire building is. Our options were thus very limited in choosing a unit. The website also did not (and still does not) state that there are any extra charges for a pets — but, having worked in real estate, I sensed there might be some trickery afoot. The lettings agent played coy with us and said they’d check about the pet fee; meanwhile, we put down our non-refundable deposit. Shortly afterwards, we got a call saying it would cost £50 for a dog (£25 for a cat, £40 for two cats, and £75 for two dogs I believe). We agreed as it had been difficult to find somewhere pet friendly and we loved the property.

The dreaded referencing process began. We had the rudest and most incompetent BoB property managers conducting our referencing process, who kept pushing for us to pay 6 months upfront and finding any possible reason to force the matter (the one that landed was my probation period). I tried to suggest proof of savings or an alternative method, as we wanted to keep our money in our accounts. We were made to feel like scum throughout the referencing process (for context, I am a Project Manager in the Civil Service, and my partner is an engineer in the Defence sector, so we hardly have unstable jobs). Nevertheless, we agreed to pay upfront as we were in too deep at this point. The referencing checks were supposedly complete and the contract would soon follow.

A month later, and 1 week to move-in monies being due, we still had no contract. I chased the BoB over and over again, and was fobbed off each time with promises of it being sent in a few days. I finally reached out to another staff member, who informed me that his colleague didn’t complete the referencing process properly, despite us having been told it had been. Thankfully, he sped through it and we were able to move in — but if I hadn’t have chased so intently, we would have ended up in a hotel paying out of pocket like other residents did.

The move in day finally came. Although we picked a Saturday and we were told this would be fine, the BoB changed their mind about working on a weekend and forced me to come in for handover on Friday. This was a 2 hour journey there and back as we were living in Kent at the time, not to mention being in the middle of the stressful moving process. They refused to be flexible and do it earlier in the week, when I was already going to be in London. That same Friday, they handed me a pet agreement — which I had not been sighted on — with a long list of things we couldn’t do with our pet (including put a bed for them on the balcony).

We finally moved in and thought all our troubles were behind us. Little did we know, they were only just beginning.

Our “professionally cleaned” flat had a thick layer of dust over every surface including the windows, bird poo on the balcony, and glue/ paint splattered all over the floor. The quality of the finishings, it became quickly clear, is terrible. The trims, doorframes, and kitchen walls are painted with water-soluble paint, meaning it chips and rubs off with the slightest provocation. The 52-page inventory with 100s of photos (with the pixelation of an early 2000s Nokia) conveniently missed all of this.

Our toilet was overflowing from day one and it took 106 days, 6 planned visits, 4 attended visits, and possibly 8 billion emails to fix this leak, which accounted for over half of our water bill during this period. And we are the lucky ones — the building’s management, which is supposed to be more convenient as it is on-site, is vastly oversubscribed and badly managed.

The first night we couldn’t sleep due the train noise (which was advertised as being silent), so if you’re a light sleeper you need not even read on to find out about about all of the other BS we’ve had to deal with…

Perhaps most worryingly, both buildings have been rife with security issues. One of the two doors to the flats was broken for weeks, and clearly accessible due to the lock being removed for most of that time. It took weeks of begging to get it fixed. Unsurprisingly, we have had thefts of countless packages and personal property, as well as Fizzy’s own TVs and laptops. We have had multiple break-ins, none of which Fizzy has notified us about (instead, we found out through word-of-mouth that Fizzy laptops containing our personal data were stolen).

It’s impressive, actually, how many burglaries occur considering no one can actually find the buildings, which are identical and next to one another. They both have the same Fizzy East16 marketing plastered all over them, but no one thought it would be a good idea to post clear signage with the official block names, as in our addresses. So, even when packages aren’t stolen, they’re constantly delivered to the wrong block or returned to sender. Recently (again, after months of complaining — notice a theme?) they put up a teeny A4 plaque on the side of the building with the block names on it. Needless to say, I doubt emergency services will be able to see that even if they stand right in front of it, let alone from the street. My engineer’s boyfriend’s quick calculations estimate the sign-to-building ratio is approximately that of an ant to a human.

All of these issues would be readily resolvable if we actually had the 24/7 concierge that they advertised. When we had our viewing, there was someone at the desk. Unsurprisingly, this is yet another promise Fizzy has broken and for months there has been no one downstairs. In fact, they moved the desk and chair from our building over to the other one to keep making the same claim to new viewers. Once again after countless complaints, they’ve put a BoB in one of the buildings’ lobbies during working hours. Clearly, this does little to fix all of the aforementioned security and delivery issues, especially as their presence is patchy at best.

Moreover, the gorgeous common spaces which incentivised us to move here, and which are meant to be free for residents to book for private events, are now a chargeable service. Never mind that we are already paying market value with amenities embedded into our rent: if you want to book the Fizzy Club for a few hours it will now cost you hundreds of pounds in fees/ cleaning costs plus a hefty deposit (if, that is, anyone even responds to your booking request in the first place). And if you want to do yoga, be sure to book the room days in advance to give them enough time to manually send you the door’s code. But anyways, who needs yoga with all these hoops you get to jump through?

To top it all off, we have been in regular talks with management and the Head of Marketing and Sales specifically has been a nightmare. She is rude, thoroughly unapologetic, and simply unpleasant. She clearly has no understanding of basic customer service nor any idea how to deescalate a situation of, at least in part, her own making through failures in management. Her favourite game to play is “how far away from me can I throw the blame?”

The only ray of light in an otherwise gloomy fizzy world are some of the BoBs, specifically Jason and Tyrra, who are both really genuine people who really do their best to help us, and the only ones who have actually taken responsibility for anything (although most of it is out of their control). If someone would just give them the keys to the kingdom, that would probably solve a lot of our issues. But alas…

Anyway, if you’re thinking of moving here… just, don’t. The only thing unique Fizzy/ Greystar offer is “pet friendliness” which is limited to only a few floors; the rest is the same old BS of every other London landlord. The only way they are “reinventing” renting is with how much they can charge you to deliver a substandard service. All they care about is money and couldn’t give a monkey’s about their tenants.

Prospective renters: You have been warned.

Sorry, not sorry, Fizzy/ Greystar (look, that’s a non-apology apology I picked up from your Head of Marketing)… There’s only so far a half-hearted bottle of cheap Prosecco can get you.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

The local area is great, if you stay on the main road. It gets a bit dodgy otherwise. Lots of shops & supermarkets and the area is clearly in the process of being gentrified.

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

To be honest, most of it is bad and was uncovered after moving in and this is covered in my review.

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

Hannah is the only member of senior management who has made a real attempt to respond in a kind and helpful way. Unfortunately, we are going to need a lot more than that to get this building back on track and a lot of the damage has already been done.