A guide to living in Dorset

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

Bins are good, location is great! Very close to beach and shops as well. Parking is never an issue either.

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

It takes a while sometimes for issues to be fixed. But they eventually do get fixed which is good.

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

Prepare to have a lot of maintenance issues at first move in.

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

Bournemouth town centre location which saves us lots of money on fuel bus tickets etc. We are happy.

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

We got disappointed couple of times but in the end it is ok

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

It will get as expensive as it is and that there will be so many issues

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

The location is great, close to the town centre, but also quiet. Maybe too quiet, ideal for homeless to roam free around the carpark, smashing windows and stealing from the cars. Parcels are constantly stolen from the reception area and in multiple occasions I have found homeless people sleeping in the carpark's stairs.

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

They have. They are responsive, but the communication in the company is an issue. It took them 3 visits and over 9 months to fix a small issue with the window in our bedroom.

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

I wish I had known that homeless people will roam free around the carpark, that the CCTV will not dissuade anyone from breaking into cars and stealing things.

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

The Helm is located near town, in the middle of the university housing, near a small Tesco and a large Asda. It is also just down the road from the drug rehabilitation housing and a couple of doors down from a pharmacy that is a methadone clinic. There is loud shouting outside every side of the building about 50% of the nights. The streets are populated with undesirables throughout the day. The building next door has also recently had planning permission to become a 20+ story high rise so I’m also waiting for the noise from the demolition to start

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

Responses received are - this has been noted, I’ll look into this, it’s on order and will be here in 2 weeks. Nothing is done, despite the consistent issues raised

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

I wish I knew how poorly this building is being managed as it has potential. I also wish I knew about the fixed energy supplier charging double the average house hold

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

Amazing as a 10 minute walk from the centre of town. Close to lots of shops food and and others short walk from the beach too

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

Yes and they have been sorted everyone asked sometimes taken a while but has always been done

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

How expensive it is here and asked to move to a bigger flat a few times which hasn’t happened but these things happen