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

A home with a built in community. Safe and close to city centre. Not the greatest area overall though.

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

You’re living under the assumption these people care about community and building a strong one that no one wants to leave. But they want to make it attractive and habitable so that prices can keep going up and to hell with the community.

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

In general the response is good. But it depends on the nature of the problem. Some little problems get resolved or looked at (and not resolved) fairly quickly. Some issues have been going on for months with numerous emails being sent and promises made but ultimately broken.

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

Welsh streets is in a great location, close to the two major parks in south liverpool. Multiple small convenience shops are part of the development at the end of the street. Approximately 10/15 min drive to city centre. Good large tesco at the end of the road. Can almost guarantee I’ll be able to park on my road however this might not be at my front door (but it’s really not far!). There are also no electric charging points so if you need to charge your car you’ve got to park outside your house and feed it through the window which is often very difficult. There’s a local ice cream van who is incessantly loud at all hours. Streets are generally quiet otherwise. Areas beyond the development can be sketchy, particularly at night (Princes Park is unlit, with Sefton park poorly). Building noise is irritating in the day, starting at 8am.

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

Challenge Place first over the rent review clause in your contract. As we moved in in march we didn’t want our rent to immediately go up in April and said can they remove it from the contract but apparently ‘no one had raised this before’ so couldn’t actually take it out. However, we pressured them enough to get in writing that it wont go up until next year.
Don’t get a bay window property as it is extremely difficult/expensive to get blinds etc to cover them as they’re all uneven and different. Check who is living next door – the sound carries from whatever they are doing!

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

Yes, the maintenance itself is good, it just takes so long to do. They also refused to fix our hob and outright lied about it being broken. Took several days to come out for a leak. Often maintenance is as a result of shoddy craftmenship to begin with where finishes have been bodged.

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

Like:
– Aesthetic
– Proportions of property
– Location
– Sense is community

Dislike
– Overall quality of finish
– Communal garden & associated politics
– Indefinite building works
– Broken promise of green spaces

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

That there was no intention of developing green spaces that now has been built on (more money for them!)

That a communal garden is not as idealistic as it sounds!

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

They have, although have sometimes proven hard to get hold of. On several occasions they have arranged to visit the property on a certain date and haven’t, but then visited on a different day which is hard to plan around. The work carried out is of questionable quality and there seems to be an emphasis on patching things up rather than solving the problem

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

Tesco and Lidl are in ~5-7 minutes of walk from our place; we have some small convenience stores as well, but don’t really use them.
We don’t go to local cafes and restaurants as we don’t have good coffee and vegan options here; it is still pretty easy to get to the city centre which is great (takes around 30 minutes of walk or ~7 minutes on a bus.) We are more than happy with bus links, as we can easily get anywhere we want (bus stops are in ~5 minutes of walk).
We don’t have a car, but we still have a parking place right in front of our house, so it’s never a problem for our friends with a car to park here.
Bin collection is always on time.
The only disappointing thing is smoking – our tenants agreement clearly states that no one is allowed to smoke in or near properties, but neighbours still do. We tried to talk to neighbours and contact Welsh street company after we received aggressive response, but they did nothing about it. We have problems with neighbours screaming/arguing/partying during night time which is also not great.

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

I’d love to know that it’s extremely cold here during winter time. Bills are huge, but the building just doesn’t keep warm.

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

Everything we said was just ignored, unfortunately.