About Story Homes

The building and property management are very good when the property is first purchased and the service provided by the sales staff is second to none.
Once the property is purchased the contact from the development team is minimal and all problems are dealt with over the phone by the company. Although they respond it is felt that the personal approach that is given when purchasing the property (by staff you know on a first name term) has been replaced by a service where you are a number and unknown.

The houses are well designed. There are a variety of types and all have parking. Newer streets have less visitor parking and so are quite crowded. The houses are quite close together and detached houses might as well be semis or terraced for all the space in between them. The estate at the minute is a building site. Lorries and cranes and contractor vans fill the main streets creating a lot of mud or dust depending on the weather.

A very pleasant development with an attractive range of house designs which all show good attention to detail. The space between houses and amount of greenery all adds to a very nice atmosphere. Ellermire Drive is brick-paved which looks great but it is obviously designed to be a light-traffic road as it is narrow in places and has no pedestrian pathway. It only has grass service strips which people pushing prams etc… cannot really use. This means it is dangerous for people on foot especially those with very young children and dogs. But now that Phase 2 is growing so is the amount of road traffic. Sandybeck Way is the other route off the development and is standard tarmaced road, full width with standard tarmac pathways on both sides. Yet Ellermire Drive is getting more traffic as anyone heading into town or West, uses Ellermire Drive. This is a big problem and shows a very poor design and lack of analysis on the part of Story Homes and the local authority. It needs sorting out. Ellermire Drive needs traffic calming measures, a 20 mph limit in to be made a cul-de-sac. The service strips are a major cause of irritation for home owners. We have to look after them to maintain a neat estate but they don’t belong to us and we are not allowed to do anything with them, But if we don’t cut the grass they would soon become a jungle. They are a terrible idea. See the attached photo of what they look like when they are driven over.

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

Excellent location on the edge of Cockermouth and yards from the boundary of the Lake District National Park. Cockermouth has a good range of shops and facilities and sits on the A66 for easy road travel across the county. There is a small bus service that calls in at the development we have never used it. We walk into town for social events or drive for shopping.

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

Service Strips arrangements and legal status. The road designs for Ellermire Drive and Sandybeck Way. How the management company funds would be used or should I say misused. Only a minority portion of the income of the land management company income is being used on grounds maintenance, the majority appears to be spent on managemnt and legal costs. Only a small area of the estate is actually looked after by these grounds maintenance contractors. It’s very poor value.

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

Mostly okay but the language used in some communications was threatening and demeaning. There is no formal complaint mechanism that is independent of the aftersales team.

3

Facilities

4

Design

4

Location

3

Value

2

Management

The design of the buildings are unique and picturesque, however the execution of the building is subpar. There are a lot of building issues such as an uneven living room ceiling, grass is very weedy and not thick, one of the toilets in the en-suite was leaking and got this replaced twice before it was resolved. This also subsequently caused a stain in the kitchen located underneath. The drive quickly had moss growing and many other issues that were noted when first moved in. There is an office located on site and although they were helpful at the first 2 weeks, you then had to call their helpline which was not so helpful or responsive