We had a lot of issues during our 4 years in the property.
– The underfloor heating wasn’t working at all for 2 winters (we have bought a heater to heat the property during my first winter in the property and used that for 2 winters), had to threaten with legal action the agent managing the flat and the building management until the heating was fixed. The whole deal with the underfloor heating fix was such a stress, these people managing the development can be appalling to deal with! The heating comfort is now much better with the underfloor heating and the extra heater we have.
– The bathroom tiles caused leaks in many flats, they had to re-tile the bathroom in a good number of flats, so we had to stay in a hotel for 2 weeks while the works were carried.
– You can’t change the heating / cooling supplier (SSE) and their daily service charge is immense for the quality of the service (~ £1/day even though you might not use the heating or cooling, so the monthly bill for no consumption is about £30). The are at least 1-2 SSE interruptions per month especially during the night.
– There are a lot of leak issues when it rains in the hallways or in the lounge. At pretty much every rain you start seeing lots and lots of buckets collecting the rain. There are properties that have had leaks inside the property during storms, with people having to move out until works were carried out to fix the leaks. There had been no communication from the building management regarding this issue and that’s telling in my view.
– The development is very noisy especially in the summer. There is a lot of noise from the office building that is being built next to the Crescent building and also from the demolition of the old BBC parking lot. Pretty much the whole 2021 summer there was construction noise quite disruptive all day long. There is also a lot of noise from neighbours, there are plenty of students living in the development throwing parties quite frequent pre-COVID. If you’re lucky (like we were), you might get a soprano living across the hall in a property listed on Airbnb or students living next door throwing parties with club music all night long. Complaining to the Concierge is not really helping with this issues.
– During the summer of 2020, the private garden was unusable given they had to put a huge scaffolding to try to fix some rain leaks. The whole garden surface was destroyed, even in 2021 we had a sad looking garden.
– Gym and pool are run by Soho House so the facilities can be quite busy because their members also have access. Their members are more important than residents which can make you feel unwelcome.
– We had a mice infestation in the flat and that’s a problem with a lot of the flats.
– The finishes inside the flat are very poor: the counter tops are poor quality, the silicon sealing are poor quality with lots of large cracks, the paint on the walls is cracking after 1 year.
– Hyperoptic is pre-installed in the flat, but the connectivity was interrupted even for days during my time in the property. The customer service is poor.
– There are a lot of snagging issues that are fixed very very slowly.
We also had some issues dealing with the agency managing the flat, Strutt & Parker:
– We had some broken silicone seal in the kitchen and that took about 5-6 months to get scheduled to get fixed.
– During the bathroom works, the developers broke the viewfinder and they told us that we are liable for it. I’ve had a long back-and-forth with the managing agent and got the viewfinder fixed.
– We had no black-out curtains in the living area, had to negotiate with the agent managing the property that the curtains are a necessity given the positioning of the flat and amount of sunshine entering the flat. Agreeing that the curtains are needed and then fixing the curtains took about 5 months.
Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:
There are quite a few small supermarkets, but the area lacks a big supermarket. There are a lots of restaurants and bars. Shopping is very easy with John Lewis & Westfield being literally at our doorstep.
The area is well connected to the rest of the city via the tube with Central, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines available within a few minutes.
Parking is an issue, you can’t really find parking on the streets during the weekends.
There is some anti-social behaviour around the tube stations late at night, but the area generally feel safe.
Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:
– A few things about the underfloor heating issues, snagging issues, noise issues, the fact that you can’t switch the heating / cooling supplier, etc
How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:
We had to deal a lot of the management, but the way they deal with issues has been very poor. Things won’t get fixed without putting pressure on them. The way they deal with the people living in the development is not the way a “luxury” development should do.
