No. 27 College Road, CR0

I like the design of the building and the flats. Not many facilities to talk about really, just basic living. We could never figure out how to use the intercom even with the instruction manual on the app, sometimes the caller could hear us, other times they couldn’t, none of us could ever figure out how to open the doors to the foyer for visitors or deliveries. The dishwasher blades were also very low so you couldn’t stand a plate up as designed as the washer blades wouldn’t spin, you had to lay plates down. The automatic ventilation system made the flat very cold, the blinds didn’t block much light around the edges and for my room at least they were too short. When first enquiring about this property, we enquired about changing the single bed for a double bed, the developers said this was fine to do, so after we moved in, I made the enquiry to have the single bed removed and I will pay for the larger bed, I had a response that this was not an option even though I was told before moving in that this could be done, so felt a bit miss-sold on that really. Also to advertise that flat as “fully furnished” but the smallest room only having a bed seemed to fall short. The other bedrooms had wardrobes and night stands, but I had nowhere to put my clothing - so had to buy furniture for our “furnished” flat. I didn’t try and contact the agent about this as well before moving in, I tried emailing and calling, they always said they’d get the member of staff who was liaising with us beforehand to call me back but she never did and couldn’t get hold of her again. I had messages unanswered from the staff in the building as well. Not having a third key for a three bedroom flat was also a big inconvenience, and the promised date kept getting pushed back, I kept having to get staff to lock or unlock the flat for me as I was the last one out or first one back, all three of us worked full-time shifts as police officers so we couldn’t just swap keys all the time. The biggest issue with that would be when I would go to the office to ask staff to let me into the flat and they wouldn’t know what I was on about and said they couldn’t do it. So I would have to sit outside my flat door waiting for one of my flatmates to finish a shift. Sometimes there wouldn’t be anyone in the office which I understand, but then there would be a note on the door with a phone number in case we needed to contact them, I would call, and then you would hear the phone ring literally inside the office which defeats the purpose. There’s an issue with packages being stolen if left in the foyer, and sometimes couriers won’t register parcels in the locker properly, so it would be delivered but my fob couldn’t access them, I would tell the office this, and they would keep putting off checking the lockers. I asked multiple times about a delivery that I said was in the lockers but inaccessible to me, they kept saying they’d get round to it. I ended up having to claim for a lost parcel and had a new one delivered, a month later, I got an email from the office saying there’s a parcel to be collected, turns out that had only just decided to check the lockers after I told them I knew mine was in there.

We like the look of the building. Could benefit from better amenities (gym, cinema room etc) especially compared to the local other buildings and a reception/concierge to add to the feeling of safety. Also, the building creaks in the wind - noise can keep you up at night.

The building is great, very modern and attractive design. The management is good and they always give everyone notice of whatever is going on. Maintenance are very quick to fix anything you require and everything is managed through a very handy resident’s app. I don’t really like the fact that it can be a bit noisy in apartments like mine, which face the train tracks, but this is a minor part of the experience. The rooftop terrace is very nice and has got great views of the surrounding area.