The Lock at Greenford Quay, UB6

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

A glorified council estate. Spent a couple a years living here and it’s gone from very nice to horrid. It’s unsafe, dirty, noisy and polluted. Yet with each passing year, the service charge, rent, utilities bills, council tax and mortgage keep going up. The whole area is a dump and the council is lazy and powerless. So is our MP. Drug use is rampant. The minute we open our windows it stinks so bad we have to close it. Same goes when we come out of our flat or when walking around the neighbourhood. And actually even inside the flat we can’t use the ventilation because of the smell of drugs from other flats circulating through the vents system. So many neighbours already sold their place after just two years of living here. And the process was horrendous, mainly due to the absolute incompetence of the people working at the housing association.

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

How everything (from the flat, building facilities and services) would get run down very quickly, yet the expenses would keep going up. In reality it’s more of a short term living arrangement as it’s definitely not the place someone would want to live long term especially for those wanting to raise a family. Who would want to let their children inhale drugs from their neighbours’ daily smoking habits. Horrid.

What is the best feature of your home:

Adequate flat layout and decent proportions. Fully equipped. The building layout however is lazy offering no privacy and complete exposure to pollution from all elements (noise, smell, dust etc).

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

The location of the property is very nice! Close to the central line. Also, there is a beautiful canal side which is great for walking and chilling and comfort!

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

They response very quickly and efficiently and solve any issues.

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

There is nothing that I wanted to know before. Everything was clear before we do purchase

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

Good aspects: safety and security is paramount. No courier person/delivery can come without prior permission. Bad aspects: Parking on the side is very less for visitors.

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

Yes. The hot water issues were promptly addressed by the building management.

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

The average rents of the areas in the vicinity as there are other developments also in the vicinity.

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

A major positive aspect of living in this area is that it had great transport links. Since moving in, my car has had to go to the garage twice and commuting to work was still very simple. I like the fact that the 92 bus is a 2 minute walk from my flat. Another positive aspect is the retail park just around the corner. It has a variety of different shops which is really convenient. Near the station there is also a Tesco Express, which is handy as they stay open later. One of the downfalls is that street parking near the flat is fairly difficult and sometimes other cars/ motorbikes park quite selfishly, but on a positive note, there are some roads a bit further down which offer free parking which is handy.

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

I had an issue with lighting and I got a response straight away from customer service, however no one has contacted me since to actually get it fixed.

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

I wish I had known how hard it is to park on the main road and possibly would have paid more to get an allocated parking space in the underground parking.

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

The only issue living here is the truck depots near by, it’s noisy in the mornings. The west way shopping centre is only a 8 min walk away and is so convenient

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

They have responded within 24hours and has always pointed me in the right direction

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

How to work my electricity meter and heater monitor - I wasn’t shown exactly how to