Brook Valley Gardens, EN5

The only thing I currently don’t like too much is the street design and neighbours parking up the roads. The streets are designed to be narrow with dedicated parking bays and crossing exits and neighbours decided to ignore everything and park their cars all over the place, even if it means that they are blocking the narrow part of the street or the crossing or other people’s car ports. The property management was meant to put parking restrictions in place and get a traffic warden, but they find plenty of excuses not to do so (hence a lower property management and design score).

The house is also about a 10-15min walk away from High Barnet station (again, 2 bus stops) and 2 bus lines lead through the development as well.

For children there is also a little park in the centre, though depending on the expansion of the area, there may be the need for a second playground as on some days it gets a bit crowded there.

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

Nice area, friendly people and it’s very quiet. Neighbours mostly keep to themselves. There are plenty of schools and nurseries in the area, which is good for any family thinking of moving here. Barnet high street is only 10-15min on foot (or 2-3 bus stops) away and there is a massive green park area a few minutes away, as well as a Coop mini market and 4 free to use tennis courts.

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

The area is generally very family friendly and most neighbours do have children. So if you’re looking for a retirement home, this won’t be it. This is more for families trying to find the best and safest home for their children with Ofsted outstanding nurseries and schools around the corner. GPs are generally not the best here, but to be fair, they haven’t been anywhere I have lived so far.

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

Slow, partial responses; though this may be Corona related. The traffic management is quite bad in the area and the property management so far has used Corona for not getting double yellow lines put down, in over a year now.

Sadly, L&Q have been difficult to deal with and I am not impressed with their service.

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

Dollis Valley Greenwalk is excellent, the amount of rubbish and dog poo around the development is not

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

How expensive fees to L&Q are. They’re not great and we pay a lot of money for their management.

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

Spare-room balcony door into a double-door/window to let in more light, like the master bedroom

1-The sales office started showing the flat to the other customers without letting us know when we were going through the mortgage process. No emails, no calls, nothing. We accidentally found this out online. The sales office has a partnership with a different company and they never apologised for the stress they have caused.

2-They did not exchange the flat on the agreed date and they decided to relay the whole decking and asked for 2-3 more days and did not compensate the amount we lost due to these delays.

3-They rushed us to pay all the money, but did not allow us for a home tour to see and mark the snags before moving in. Instead, we have been dealing with the bits and pieces for the past 1.5 months instead of enjoying our flat since nobody checked them properly although they had our exact moving in date.

4- Our parking spot is out of use since the day we moved in and nobody told us that before we moved in. It has been surrounded by fencing although the sales manager said it was going to be opened by the first week of February. – Deadlines mean nothing to them and they just do not care about how you deal with these news. Are you having an expensive car? Just park it outside. Stolen? Not their problem.

5-We live right next to the fire doors and they are super heavy. Some neighbours do not know how to close them silently by using a knob and our windows shatter. No signs on the doors at all or nobody is sending an internal email. You can wake up at 5 am with a door smash.

6-No emails or updates like other developers do in every few weeks. No communication.

If you want to live with stress and chase people and feel like you are doing their job, buy from Countryside. If not, pick a different developer for your peace of mind.

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

Barnet is a really nice area to live in. There are nice coffee shops, parks , a gym that is close , everything you need is between 10-15 mins walking distance.

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

I wish I knew that my parking space was out of use.

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

We have been trying to sort our issues with the developer and struggling to get solutions or answers.

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

One of the nicer places to live this side of London. Stunning location next to Dorris Valley Park – lovely place to take my dog for a walk. Upmarket shops and restaurants nearby which makes for a relaxing way of life round these parts. Overall this location is fantastic, I could not be more pleased.

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

A tip I would share with a new neighbor is to explore locally as soon as you get here! There are many trendy shops and markets to visit and spend a day out.

What is the best feature of your home:

The best feature is the location, it gives me a sense of privacy and due to the design it is really not intrusive, I could not be happier.

However, the building managers L&Q are notoriously poor at providing repairs, keeping communal areas tidy and have made errors on service charges several times. They’re a challenge to work with, and ultimately the biggest drawback to living here.

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

The area is served very well by a great little Coop in walking distance, as well as a ‘does everything’ store called Coopers. At a 5 minute drive (or 10 minute cycle) there is also a Waitrose, a Sainsburys or an Aldi, and in the other direction a Morrisons – so there is loads of choice. High Barnet is also a walk away which includes great little shops and several decent pubs.

My street is currently a little noisy due to the all night buses, but they will shortly be going electric and so that will help the noise. As the development is still being built there are the usual building noises, but it’s great seeing the area grow.

High Barnet tube is a 10 min walk if you like a brisk pace, and by car it’s very easy to get anywhere, especially out onto the M25 or A1.

Parking is a little bit of an issue at the moment, but should calm down as we get more of the development completed. Our flat has a designated parking space which is great.

Whetstone has some great bars and restaurants, there are excellent take-aways available, and honestly the best Pizza in North London in High Barnet.

Occasionally there is some poor behaviour around the shops due to the local schools and with that comes some litter and graffiti, especially around the bus stop. However, in general this is limited to small areas and short periods of time. The green areas of Dollis Valley are incredible, and you can walk right up through Mill Hill and into Totteridge valley.

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

Genuinely, everything about this development is wonderful, but I wish I’d known how expensive and incompetent the building management company were!

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

L&Q are challenging to work with. Service charges are far too high for what they provide, and they have regularly overcharged us. The site in general looks good and tidy from the outside, but communal areas are not managed as well as they should be. Gates being fixed and front doors occasionally broken have taken up to a month to repair, and although our emails are usually responded to eventually, there seems to be a sense that if they leave it, we will eventually give up asking!

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

The area is well connected but has few shops and cafe/restaurants around. Transport is good with both tube station and several buses. There are anyway a lot of council houses in the area and the people living there are often loud and tend to leave a lot of litter around the streets, as well as not cleaning after their pets. Hopefully the situation will improve by the end of the last development phase. Bin collection is good but it becomes a problem in case they skip a week; although it happened only a couple of times per year so far.

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

The litter situation on the streets is quite bad, I genuinely hope it will improve asap.

What is the best feature of your home:

Good kitchen with full optionals and space distribution.

However, all properties are leasehold and road layouts are poor leading to some parking issues and dangerous junctions.

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

Local high street is good by current standards. Relatively safe area. Easily commutable into central London. Retail shopping / restaurants not so good.

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

Do your research on the incentives that the developer offers and research the implications of leasehold property

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

Developer has responded to all snags in a timely fashion. L&Q look after the estate and this is fairly expensive for the work they do.

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

Construction noise, not enough shops nearby (only Coop)

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

Noisy construction right next to the house, makes the whole house shake.

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

I don’t know, I think it’s good as it is in its current state.

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

Barnet’s a great area to live with a fabulous high street with lots of restaurants and shops. There are lots of green belt areas to walk in locally as well as great transport links both on the development as well as the underground just a minute drive away. Parking isn’t great on the development but we have 2 parking spaces on our driveway. The development is quiet and very well maintained.

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

I wish I’d known that L&Q would introduce parking restrictions in our road.

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

All problems were dealt with professionally and promptly with great results.

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

Good location close to tube, excellent design. Good parking around and in general a nice community.

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

That the initial plans of the development will change in any phase

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

It is ok it could always be better. We had all issues fixed but required chasing