Park Gate, B26

Extremely high electricity usage (over £1800 in less than 6 months)
Very poor fit and finish
Criminal activity on premises (personally lost over £500 worth due to theft)
Shocking sound insulation (you can hear people walking in a corridor in every corner of our flat)
On-site staff polite but unable to resolve any issues
Many of the promised features and services currently unavailable
Very cheap appliances (broken hob after 4 months of usage)

And all this pleasure for over £900 per calendar month.

To start with, when we moved in September we started to notice little quirks of the flat (which we must’ve omitted during the viewing being amazed by how much was included in the price; concierge, secure car park, gym, security and a rooftop terrace), we started to notice smaller and bigger things: lack of grouting in the bathroom, improperly assembled furniture, uninsulated drain pipe in the kitchen causing hell a lot of noise, drafty windows, horribly loud corridor, radiators with a wrong wiring (in order to switch off the radiator in our bedroom you have to go to the bedroom next door and vice versa), damaged windows’ glaze (windows in a bedroom and living room were covered in black gunk) – we have immediately raised this issues with the staff and wanted them to rectify them since the flats were meant to be finished to the highest standards and clearly weren’t. The problems still persist, despite the fact we have raised them 6 months ago. They have managed to rectify only windows, however attempted it 3 times, first time we were given less than 12 hrs notice so we weren’t able to arrange the necessary time off work, second time when we have managed to make the arrangements window fitters never turned up, and third time, window fitters turned up and changed the windows only to find out that the window in one of the bedroom has been installed improperly and accumulates outrageous amounts of the humidity in between the glazes.

When we’ve received our first bill we were shocked to the core, the electricity usage exceeded the EPC over three times and we were again met by the staff’s reluctant response. We’re currently 8 weeks into our dispute with Scottish Power and the situation still remains unresolved. The concierge arranged for us a visit of a Construction Manager – who apart from being very rude and unmannered person didn’t provide us with any information, furthermore all the information provided by him were clashing, proving his incompetency. He quickly advised us to switch off the boiler as this was supposed to be the reason for our high electricity usage only to back out from this plan after running a quick test of actually switching the boiler off and noticing this doesn’t affect the smart meter, then proceeded into denial claiming 400 pounds per month are compeletely normal for a 2 bedroom flat, claiming it’s merely of fraction of what he pays. Clearly not a reasonable explanation, we were informed he was involved in the construction of the building and therefore has its stake in maintaining its reputation. We have been presented with conflicting facts and after his visit we have never heard back from Alliance City Living in regards to this matter. More than that, we were later told by the staff that indeed, our bills seem ridiculously high compare to the other same size and same occupancy flats.

In the meantime I have been trying to contact the EPC assessor who conducted the assessment of this flat only to found out his phone number written on the EPC is non existent and the company isn’t interested in registering the complaint. Only today – 8th of March we have been advised by the company that a third party assessor will re-access the flat and we will be given a new EPC which hopefully will shine some light on this case as nobody really knows why the electricity here is so high!

In addition, at the beginning of February our hob has broken down – we’re still waiting for this to be rectified and we are being dismissed by the staff saying that since the hob is still under a warranty we have to wait for them to deal with that issue and due to COVID this will take longer than expected. It is currently over a month that we’re living without a working hob.

All of that was recently followed by the fact that my bike was stolen from a secured car park, where it was locked with a D-lock in a bike storage area. At this point we were told by the security that they’re not present on site and they’re available only on the phone-call if you see any suspicious activity (as if a motorbike which was stolen a week ago wasn’t enough) or as I was told by the Property Manager ‘if you forget your keys to the building’.

Not to mention that since we have joined Facebook Group of the residents we have learned about the problems of the other residents, loud parties on the 4th floor, drugs presence in the building, teenagers spitting out through the windows and throwing the cigarette ends on the balconies of other residents as well as other thefts on the premises.
It has all escalated to the point when we wanted to leave the tenancy and never again have anything to do with Alliance City Living, however we have been recently informed they are not willing to release us from the contract.

In my opinion, this is far from a ‘luxury living’ experience and if I had a chance to go back and never deal with these people I would’ve stayed away from this company.

If you’re a working adult, who likes peace and quiet, concierge who will greet you with a smile rather than a CCTV footage of your bike being stolen and want a hassle-free life – stay away from this property. There are cheaper apartment buildings available with way better flats and service than this.

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

In my opinion, this is far from a ‘luxury living’ experience and if I had a chance to go back and never deal with these people I would’ve stayed away from this company.

What is the best feature of your home:

There aren’t best features of this home, the idea was brilliant, however the execution was absolutely terrible.

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

The area around the development is average for this part of Birmingham with shops and facilities available near by, not that it matters…

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

The outrages electricity costs and the shocking quality of the flat (for the money)

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

Some, most are still outstanding with new issues popping out every week it seems.

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

What a shame, advertised as being luxury but it is far from that. Expensive bills, criminal activity

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

Electricity bills, security and loud neighbours.

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

Non rtn calls, customer service is none existence.