Phoenix Quarter, DA1

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

poor to extremely poor, no trees, full of cars and motorcycles and the streets are not people-friendly. During the day we can't keep our windows open because of all the outside noise. There's very little choice to ordering food as the restaurants and bistros are not offering decent food. The walk to the shops/park is always stressful and involves crossing the same street 3-4 times. Absolutely non-liveable.

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

I wish I knew about the busy roads, the lack of pedestrian zones and the poor state of the building.

What is the best feature of your home:

The best feature is my entire apartment, the only place I find solace in the whole of DARTFORD

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Absolutely one of the worst quality houses built with virtually no aftersales assistance putting the poor quality right that their managent accepted and signed off as he Barrats quality during the whole build process. Issues with a house now 4 years old but reported well inside the Barratts defects period with most still to put right. 1. Seven major leaks do far with heating system needing walls and clings removed. Pipe work found to be cracked in places. 2. Cylinder Hot water expansion pipe not connected in floor space 3. Electrical CCU labeled incorrectly 4. Strong draughts comming through joints between windows and cill boards. 5. Shower waste from next door property connected to soil pipe in our kitchen. 6. Internal CAT 5 cabling not working. 7. Strong draughts comming through multi media plate in dinning room. 8.Gaps under front door cillsllieong ants and wood lice though. 9. Tinber fence retaining ground to next door garden fallen over 10. Timber fence on top of 3m retaining wall yo other side property not fixed to retaining wall and leaning. 11. Garden levels sinking with manholes in lawn sticking 3" out of ground 12. Lids to 3m deep manholes not se used in place and are 450mm dia. 13. Back garden paving moving apart. 14. Loud vibration noise from hot water cylinder when using hot water. 15. Cracking to ground floor ceramic tiling in kitchen, hallway WC and dining room. 16. Wrong pressure reducing valve installed on in comming main. 17. Internal grade timber used to construct external bin store 18. MDF skirting used in bathroom and shower room. 19. Roof creaking and banging during high winds. 20 Ceramic flooring by front a back doors absolutely freezing door to cold bridgng issues at thresholds. 21.Heating controls in lounge not working. 22. All internal door latches had to be replaced after two years due to cheap quality product installed. 23. Leaks on both bathroom basin wastes due to waste fittings brring over tightend and cracked on installation. 24. Car parking in your own alloted space outdide your home without displaying a permit results in the private parking management Company issuing a ticket. Parking attendant only comes artound 5am so only tickets residents that have forgot to put their permit out and doesn't tickets cars parked during the day by people who use the train Station. Think long and hard before purchasing from Barratts. They had one of the poorest reputation in the business over the years and it seems that poor standard and acceptance to let people move into such is still present within the business that is only worried about achieving the numberz of house sales required to please the city and release the management bonuses

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

Customer services Manager will attend only to lay blame with the sub contractor and to also give a poor reason for why something has occurred. If challenged with the NHBC standards he has nothing to respond with and you nevet see or hear from. him again.

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

That Barratts still operated as they did back on the 80's and 90's just churning out poor quality. This just tells you his their managent operate and what the NHBC quality scoring system is about.