About L&Q

L&Q believe passionately that people’s health, security and happiness depend on where they live.

L&Q house around 250,000 people in more than 105,000 homes, primarily across London and the South East – but L&Q are more than just a registered charitable housing association.

L&Q create better places to live by delivering high quality homes, neighbourhoods and housing services that people can afford.

With nearly 60 years’ experience, we have what it takes to do things right and provide long-term support to our communities where they need it.

L&Q developments

There are a number of L&Q developments currently listed on HomeViews – from North London’s centrally located Colindale Gardens to peaceful Davis Way in South London’s Sidcup. You’ll also see some ‘in construction’ units, such as Wandsworth Exchange – an upcoming mixed-use development close to Wandsworth Town station.

L&Q reviews

All the flats come with outdoor space, either a private balcony or terrace. It’s big enough for table chairs and a small cheeky bbq…..The Landlord looks after the building well; if there are any issues with the flat it is usually resolved within a few days.” – Chi, verified resident at L&Q’s Weavers Quarter

You can read reviews of L&Q developments by clicking on the properties in the list below. If you live in an L&Q development, click here to leave your review. If you know of L&Q properties that aren’t yet on HomeViews, you can submit a new listing here.

Number of Developments

69

Ratings

3.72 Rating

Rating (based on 1015 reviews)

Excellent

25.52%

Very Good

43.05%

Average

20.69%

Disappointing

5.62%

Very Poor

5.12%

Developments

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L&Q reviews

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The build is not done correctly, the noise travelling from properties underneath Is very bad.

The build is not done correctly, the noise travelling from properties underneath Is very bad. The same from the properties either side. There is no such thing as having piece of mind within your own home. The master room you can hear the neighbours toilet being used and all kitchen appliances being used since the neighbours kitchen is on the same floor (2)as my rooms. Constantly hearing showers being used in both bedrooms and dripping off water.

The bathroom also has thin walls that backs onto part of the neighbours kitchen and garden there lists of noise and sleepless nights.

Van has been marked up and bin on a Monday are being left near cars

Neighbours are neighbours from hell constant loud music throughout the day and night. I have not had one good night slee since moved in and I have nothing but regrets moving to this site with the lack of uneducated and unclean neighbours that live within the site.

The build also has defects of which was logged early last year and still till this day nothing has been done to amend these issues. Example of one issue no heating and draft coming from windows and wet floor around the edges of the rooms.
Plus many other concerns

Barking and Dagenham and mainstay ignore your issues and concern and have shown nothing but neglect to issues.

The dust since moved in has been really bad on health and the noise from the development also has been unbearable. Works sometimes have started before 8am Monday to Sunday.

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

Landlord would have been honest and much more structure organised.

The homes were not ready and therefore they were rushed and finished with a poor standard. Even though the homes were not ready to be moved into they landlord still allowed this.

Many people that live within the complex have messed up some of the areas and looks messy.

1
Facilities
1
Design
3
Location
1
Value
1
Management
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This is a long one, you might want to grab a tea…

Design: there are a lot of design shortcomings with the flats in Georgette Apartments and there were many faults upon moving into the property – some of which we have been totally fobbed off with…

Radiators – after enquiring and enquiring and enquiring about the broken radiator in the ensuite we were told that it was ornamental as in case someone was morbidly obese lived in the property one day it would mean that having it so close to the loo could give them 3rd degree burns. Just plain ridiculous, it was sold to us as a working radiator and we’ve never had a warm shower in our main bathroom. It should have been added directly next to our shower to prevent this.

Underfloor Heating – we moved in in December and the underfloor heating wasn’t working. The flat was freezing (as I said, it was December) and didn’t get fixed for the first week. No technician had checked it before we arrived (my boyfriend works in construction and said this was standard so that these mundane sort of issues were avoided). Even now, it takes so long to feel the effects of the heating that I would actually prefer a radiator that can blast out some heat.

Switches (no dimmable switches in Kitchen / Sitting Room or Bedrooms). Just makes such a difference, fixtures are all fitted with blindingly bright lights and would be nice to be able to control this through dimmers.

Bathroom Lights – in the ensuite bathroom the overhead lights and the under cupboard lights circuit are all connected so you can’t turn one on without the other. This is unlike the spare bathroom where you have this option. The ensuite switch is on the same switch as the (non-dimmable) bedroom light. They could have so easily been separated and very much a design oversight when the ensuite is always going to be the main bathroom used by anyone that lives here.

Blinds – the ones that come with the flat just don’t keep any light out. No blackout blinds in sight and you wake up at around 6am due to how bright the room gets.

Electricity – the circuits in the flat don’t seem to be ok in our flat as it will look like lights have blown when they will turn back on the next day. They also flicker quite a bit. This has happened in the bathroom and the kitchen primarily.

Washing Machine – the washing machine is incredibly powerful and will try and shift itself out against the doors it’s contained behind. We don’t overfill it and we have to have it on a very low spin cycle. Also it is incredibly annoying how the washing machine faces into the storage room and not out towards the doors. Again, seems like a Design oversight.

Storage Cupboard in Hallway – having such an empty fill of a room is actually quite annoying. There should be inbuilt frames / clothes rail / something to make this more of a useable space.

Internet Connection Box – this was so hidden away that we had to call up L&Q to find out where the connection was. Should have been included on the welcome pack.

Extraction Fan in Kitchen – this barely works. If you’re boiling a pot of water, the whole Kitchen/Sitting Room becomes humid with hot, damp air. It also does an awful job at extracting kitchen smells, so much so that we have had to buy food odour neutralising candles (and we eat pretty standard food) as it just lingers for a good day or so.

Water Pressure – this was so bad when we first moved into the flat that we had to get an engineer out through L&Q. It is better than what it was but it still takes about 60 seconds before you get hot water in the ensuite bathroom (furthest faucet away from the tank). Also to run a bath in the spare bathroom takes a good 35 minutes due to the poor water pressure.

Sound Proofing – on the hole it is pretty good but it seems to be better at cancelling out next door flats but not nearly as good at cancelling out flats above you.

Entrance Call Cams – ours just isn’t very good at all. It was fine in the beginning but now the audio is awful and you can’t hear what the person outside the property is saying. It is also so frustrating that you can’t buzz people up to your floor. Having to go down and meet any visitors on the ground floor is just so annoying and should really be looked at – when we are allowed to have people over to ours again (thanks Covid), if you have any form of a get-together this is going to drive all tenants loopy!

General Finishings – these have left quite a bit to be desired.

There are some pros though as well – the fact that there are USB ports in all of the plugs is really useful. We like the 2 opening options on all of the windows – very useful. The space is nice and open and has really good natural light throughout the flat. Communal areas are cleaned regularly. Square footage is ace.

Security: further to the above comment box, the two door entry into Georgette honestly is an absolute joke. The first door is *so*ridiculously*heavy* that one day is *bound* to injure someone as it just chases you inside when entering the property and falls very heavily on you (totally expecting it to annihilate someone’s feet / ankles, etc especially in the summer months when people will be wearing flipflops, etc). Should a child get in the way of the door, it would throw them across the entrance hall. Speaking to Concierge, it seems like so many people have complained about this and L&Q just can’t be bothered to deal with this. Secondly, the locks on *both doors* don’t even work so again, is a huge security risk. As a female it doesn’t feel safe at all for this reason and when coming into the building and unlocking my front door, I am always on the lookout for people behind me, etc.

CCTV: for the reasons above, it would be good to understand what CCTV cameras are in operation. Both inside the buildings (entrances, lifts, stairwells, floor corridors) and also outside. Since Sarah Everard especially, walking up the connect roads, especially those that lead onto main roads (and the one that hugs the cemetery) it feels much less safe as an area. Also if there are CCTV cameras, for it to be advertised that they are in operation.

Concierge – Tom has been a great addition to the block and is always willing to help improve the building. The Post system works efficiently and well with the text notification of any deliveries.

As for L&Q, they are honestly one of the worst property management companies that I have come across and I have come across a few. It seems very bureaucratic and everyone passes the responsibility onto another team when possible. The answers that we have had to some of the issues that we have had with the flat have been downright laughable – especially the ‘ornamental radiator’. We have had to chase and chase and chase some issues with the flat and it just seems so badly organised / comes across like they can’t be bothered.

In terms of us wanting to secure the flat, we viewed it at 5pm and were told that if we wanted it we would have to confirm and pay the deposit by 7.30pm that night. We did this only to find that there was practically radio silence from L&Q until the week or so before we moved in. Was so badly organised and no one could get back to us.

Additionally we had an email to say that any flats that had doormats outside their properties had to remove them as they were a trip hazard. The lip that separates the carpet in the communal hallway to the ‘wooden’ floors was just as high as the doormat and so basically that lip is as much a trip hazard as a doormat.

Finally, the inventory. I was here when the external inventory person took notes on the state of the property but we submitted the inventory report as requested in the two week timeframe and we never got confirmation of acknowledgement. A pretty key feature of moving into any rented property and just another way that L&Q haven’t done their due diligence.

There are some very simple steps forward to make this a better place to live (please start with the number of security issues and the ridiculously heavy door as it undoubtedly will hurt someone one day) as the safety of your tenants should be paramount.

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

Location: generally speaking the location of the property is good. There are x4 supermarkets in the area, plenty of shops. It isn’t much of a destination in terms of bars and restaurants and the quality is quite varied. Was hoping Wandsworth Town would be more akin to Northcote Road and have a better range of delis/ boutique-y shops/ pubs/ bars/ brunch spots, etc but seems filled with countless estate agents and hairdressers. There is a good butcher though. Also as an area it does feel like you can’t get to any real green spaces easily. All the parks are surrounded by roads which in lockdown hasn’t been ideal. Additionally, vehicle access to the property is not great. It is too complicated to get cabs to pick you up and drop you off so often have to send them to Garrett Lane or St Ann’s Hill, and getting food delivered is awkward due to security access.

Transport: the links here are good with plenty of busses and the overground a 10 minute walk away. Weekend service of trainlines is often awkward though so is better during the week.

Parking – not an issue as don’t have a car although when we enquired about it, L&Q said that all the spaces were filled when later we found out that only a small % of the flats (both to rent and to buy had been filled).

Bin Collection – fine and haven’t noticed any issues. Although it would be great if they actually had a compost bin for us to use. Just seems very un-eco friendly which isn’t ideal.

Anti-social behaviour – handful of thefts from bikes in the building with seemingly very little effort made by L&Q to prevent this from happening again. Access to the underground car park has basically had the doors wide open for weeks.

Traffic noise has been practically unnoticeable however we chose the location of our rent flat with this taken into consideration (we are facing the cemetery).

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

I love the flat and space that we have created but in all honesty, the amount of issues with the property when we first moved in took a lot of joy out of moving into a new build as it just felt like it was all form over function.

What is the best feature of your home:

The size and space that the flat holds is incredibly good. Was the key reason for moving into the property against older styles of buildings.

1
Facilities
4
Design
4
Location
4
Value
1
Management
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Barking Riverside – Unless its your only option please don’t buy.

This is very tough to write, as a homeowner who has lived here for 5 years now. I brought my fist ever property here over 5 years ago now on the help to buy scheme. I was 27 and desperate to make the change from paying a landlord to paying off my own mortgage. I own a modest 1st floor two bed two bath flat and I want to start with the positives, which are as follows.

The build quality is actually very good and the room sizes are by new build standards huge! Heating and electricity bills are very cheap thanks to the modern insulated design and there are several areas/ parks for young kids to play and explore. You can take a walk to the river and enjoy their small wilderness walks among long grasses and wild flowers.

Now for the not so nice parts, in the 5 years I have lived here I have seen the arrival of the uber boat service and the train station, despite these additions the value of my flat has not increased. So if your hoping to see growth on your property’s value I suggest you look elsewhere, although the help to buy scheme will save you a few bucks, the flats are over priced to ensure the developer is well compensated.

The train station, well for some reason the train line runs to gospel oak and avoids zones 1 & 2. So if your working in central its actually just as quick to get on a bus as it is to take the train. Check its route and your travel time as its still an hour. And as for the boat its allot more expensive and unless your work is close to the river your actually worse off. Again I highly recommend you check your route and travel times, plus costs.

However if you are someone who drives to work please bear in mind that the traffic in and out of the development is truly horrendous from the hours of 7am to 6pm. Again please check using google maps as I kid you not their are times it takes 15-30 mins to drive what must be all of 3 miles. And there are plenty of idiot drivers trying to undertake and push you out.

You also need to remember this development is no where near at full capacity, and seeing as the trainline goes to nowhere, people are likely to remain going by car so its only going to get worse, food for thought if I haven’t already discouraged you!

So that about wraps up transport links.

Now for the bad bits about the environment, firstly I would like to mention the lovely buzz of the overhead power lines, fortunately I am not that close to any of them however at certain periods of the day in the week they make allot of noise. My advice is try to buy as far away from them as possible, say for instance not on the development.

The deal breaker, so if you do not already know the development is situated in between two very large and very pungent human waste sites. Beckton Gas works is actually a site where they process our human waste and create methane gas, the name Beckton Gas Works is just a clever play on words. Then on the other side of the river to the east of us you have crossness sewage treatment works. Together these make up the largest waste sites in the whole of Europe, and luckily they are right on your door step. Now to be frank they don’t always smell, in fact more often than not they don’t. They have sealed the lids to allow the processing of the smelly gasses, however from time to time they have too much and need to realise it into the air. The problem is it leaves the smell of what can only be described as a 7/10 human fart rating, and say its released at 3pm, you will be left with the smell until the early hours of the morning. This tends to happen 2-3 times a week in the summer and 1-2 in the winter.

Thirdly you may or may not be aware that it is still a building site, and it is right next to gill aggregates, a company that ships in thousands of tonnes of sand. The sand is stored in giant open pits, the problem with this is the sand is free to travel with the wind. And this sand tends to land on cars, now if your using your car daily this is not a major issue however it will stick to windows, balconies and cars that don’t get used all that often. Again depending how wind a day it is will play a factor although it can get very windy what with being next to the river.

You also need to remember that the development is surrounded by a big dirty industrial site, that has many businesses that deal in waste management, they have large lorry’s carrying building waste and recycling waste and they tend to leave a trail of mess in their wake. I couldn’t tell you how many lorry’s pass through there every day but its a huge amount and they are mainly responsible for the horrendous traffic throughout the day. I don’t know if the industrial site will be moved at any point but until it is, it will continue to ruin the roads with traffic and overflowing waste.

So that round about wraps up the local environment.

So finally time to review the not so local amenities, community and developers.

I cannot deny their are now two local small co-ops, they are reasonably priced and open 7am-10pm and have very friendly, welcoming staff. You can definitely pick up a variety of supplies however as always they don’t have everything you need, so your still going to need to pop to a big store or get a home delivery. If your not a fan of online shopping then its a 15 min drive to Asda, Sainsburys or Tesco’s, although the latter two can take longer during peak traffic hours. There is a small tatty looking coffee shop next to the co-op that’s part of the older development but I have never been interested in going to it. And there is also a local pharmacy but again its small and my experiences in their have not necessarily been bad but they could definitely be allot better.

For all the gym freaks out there your closest one is back in town which is about a 25 min trip, other than that there is a floodlight pitch for football though i have never seen any invites to play. And to be fair I’m useless at football so there may be an opportunity for any football fans to join up but you would need to check first.

As for community the local church seems a blast and always has things going on, its a majority african community and they are really friendly. If you are into this sort of thing I have no doubt you will really enjoy yourself. Its as busy as the A13 slip road most days so evidently a great venue.

As for schools I cannot comment but they are new and there are several to choose from. As for trouble/ crime, I am aware that there are two local drug gangs and we have had several police vans and police squads in the local area protecting one gang from another, due to a gag related shooting. However I have to state that i have personally never had any trouble at all in my time here. And I have often stumbled home from the local bus station with absolutely no issues at all. In reality there is trouble in most areas and of all the places I have lived this definitely scores low on crime in relation to the other places I have lived. It is genuinely a very nice community here.

Finally onto the developers, now lets be real here, anyone expecting high quality service from a business that’s building cheap houses on this development is kidding themselves. They know its cheap, they know its smelly and they know if your buying here, you either cant afford anywhere else or you haven’t bothered to do your research. Fortunately the only issues i had with my place were scuffed doors and some finishing of painting. Now I had to chase them to complete what should have been done before I got the keys but one call and one email sorted it relatively pain free. However since this time I have had multiple parking issues that go undealt with and as for the maintenance charges well they are a rip off to start with and they went up 50% around 12 months ago. In total I spend £3,300.00 a year on ground rent and maintenance. And in return I get someone to hoover the communal spaces once a week and spray some cheap perfume. The lift gets a sticker once a year and a couple of blokes cut the grass once a month. The windows also get washed twice a year so all in all, I’m getting robbed as there are about 90 properties in our building.

So why write this? Well assuming this actually gets posted, I don’t want my loss and pain to be experienced by anyone who has bothered to do what I didn`t. And that’s research, as soon as the fire cladding issue is fixed on my property it will be going up for sale and I shall never return.

I am confident even if this makes it onto the website, some unfortunate sole will still buy my flat and if not I will just rent it out.

As they say you get what you pay for…

Cheap but overpriced, Smelly, poor commuter links, ridiculous traffic, now property value growth and a severe lack of local amenities.

And there are still more homes to be built so the above will only get worse.

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

How bad it smells, how bad the traffic is, how unclean the surrounding areas are, how bad the transport links are and how much sand blows onto the development.

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

They are non existent and ignore every email. Too lazy to actually deal with any issues.

1
Facilities
3
Design
1
Location
3
Value
1
Management
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Great quality, great location, underwhelming management

Look, this is a mixed bag here. The development is of excellent quality and given its quality and location it is very well priced. On the minus side, the property management is quite terrible.
The buildings are built to the highest standard. The materials are top quality, as well as amenities and facilities (dishwasher, oven, washing machine etc.). Most importantly, the air circulation systems is absolutely fantastic. It works miracles: no humidity in bathrooms or anywhere really. I’ve lived in numerous houses and apartments in the UK before and I learned that humidity and mould are often and issue, even in new builds. I’m very happy to report, that nothing like that is happening over here. Apartments are fry and very well ventilated. I also enjoy the floor heating system. TBH, you don’t need to use much heating, since the aparments are well isolated (and well ventilated at the same time). Great job on this!

The property management is a big problem here. It is very difficult, often impossible to get anything done. There is no clear hierarchy of resposibilities within L&Q management, so whatever you do, they may simply never reply. The lady at the L&Q helpline once gave me a bunch of false information, simple because she could: she is not resposible for anything. She also said someone will get back to me within five working days, as this is their policy. Nobody ever got back to me.
Unfortunately, this has consequnces, also on property’s security. There has been a few bike thefts in the property in the past. They were never solved, because the L&Q took weeks to reply to any request: the CCTV footage was deleted. On other occasion the CCTV was swtiched off for a month and nobody noticed until some bikes were stolen. Nobody is able to say who swtiched it off and nobody is resposible for anything.
A few months ago we got quite a substantial service charge increase. We’ve protested that and asked for justification. We never got any reply. This is extremely unprofessional.
This is not a one-off problem but a systematic policy by the L&Q: to ditch any requests from tenants. Sometimes you get someone inside L&Q who genuinely wants to help, but they are never able to get anywhere.

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

The development very well located. It is on the Isle of Dogs, which is self-contained neighbourhood with everything you need just within a walking distance. There are good schools, shops, parks, all sorts of activities for adults and children alike (like swimming, ballet, martial arts etc., even watersports) as well as nightlife in Canary Wharf area. The area has excellent location to the city centre on a Jubilee Line.
It is quite walk to the Jubilee station, count 15 minutes, but from there it’s just a few minutes to London Bridge and a few more to Westminster.
The single biggest issue with the area is the waste management. I think it is the Tower Hamlets council that is at fault here. The area has often tons of rubbish lying on streets and flying around. This is absolutely most horrible around Asda. And nobody seems to care.
The New Union Wharf has also its own waste management problem: the bins are underground and the council needs special trucks to empty them. Those trucks are often broken and waste is not being collected. Once, we had to wait six weeks for waste collection, can you imagine?!

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

When chosing this development it is clearly better to go for a smaller building. Bike thefts are targeted at the tall towers, and in tall towers there seems to be much higher chance of ASB. In smaller building you quickly get to know each other and can be more effective.

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

The policy is to not respond at all or respond very late. Please see my comments above.

5
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
5
Value
2
Management
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