New River Walk, N8

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

Local area is perfect for what we need, great variety of restaurants and local independent stores. Lovely community feel and good connections to city centre.

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

They take up to 14 days to respond to emails. We had ridiculous responses where after about 10 days they forward your email to another department and the 14 day wait time restarts :))

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

That there is not nearly enough parking for everyone and that as residents of this building we can't get on street parking. Basically means that we could never get a car for as long as we live here. Would have been good to know this at the time.

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

Lots of great amenities in Hornsey, all essentials are within walking distance and very close to tube and national rail stations

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

They have dealt with some of the communal plumbing issues, but response time could have been much much faster

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

Important to understand if there are any parking restrictions in the estate and local area

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

The local area is very vibrant with lots of shops and restaurants to choose from and several nearby high streets (Crouch end, Green lanes, Woodgreen, Hornsey highstreet). The train station is 3 min from the development and Picadilly line is 10 min walk away.

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

they have, after 14 working days :)) which is a joke. You clearly need a bigger team or a more efficient system of supporting your customers. Everyone in the development (because we do speak to each other, you know) is disheartened with the responses we often receive when raising issues and the time is taking for them to be resolved.

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

(bad) We have been lied to about there being a Zipcar for the estate. very disappointing that there isn't one, especially for a car-free development as you call it. (good) the flat is very well insulated and we didn't have any mold problems - yay!

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

I love the proximity to the train station and the quirky Crouch end Neighborhood which has lots of personality and independent small businesses. Sadly on the other side of the community we sometimes hear of gang violence and street fighting :( overall there is a good range of shops, restaurants and cafes as well as parks (Alexandra Palace, Finsbury park) . Our development is car free and although we've been promised a designated car sharing spot, this hasn't materialised more than 2 years since we moved. To be frank, we were very disappointed with this aspect as we counted on it and felt like the housing association was then blaze about and dismissive of not making it happen as promised in the info/sales pack.

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

Yes, eventually. The response time is really scary and we hope never to need their urgent assistance or we're in trouble.

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

I wish the association would have been more forthcoming about the parking situation rather than brushing it aside.

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

The local area has the best of several worlds - the boutique, slightly pretentious world of Crouch End, the down-to-earth, slightly down-at-heel world of Wood Green, and the somewhere in between high street of Hornsey. The main horror is the air pollution coming off Wightman Road which is often in grid-lock and with poisonous air. It's sad that a significant minority of residents also have cars, polluting their neighbours and parking across the development's pavements. Ironically public transport couldn't be better - rail, bus, and underground, with easy access to airports and mainline stations: it's incredibly well linked. The green spaces of Ducketts Common, Alexandra Park and Queens Wood are special, and the canal has heron, swans, cormorant, and even little ibis.

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

They tend to respond in the end, either personally or just get the thing done and don't say anything.

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

That rent would go up so much in one year, and still be legal -- 6%!