Park Farm, BS35

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

Open spaces are really nice and well done, parking is good as most people have access to a drive however I do wish there were double yellows on the main road to stop some of the congestion. Bin collection is great, everyone is very friendly and it is a very quiet area to live in.

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

At first very quickly however they quickly forgot about us, started ignoring us and then when raised with Barratts Head Office they denied all knowledge of our problems.

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

I wish I would have recorded every conversation with Barratts so I had proof of everything they agreed to.

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

The area is wonderful, it’s so quiet, there’s lots of open green space as well as being surrounded by the beautiful Thornbury Countryside. It’s a quick 15 minute walk along the Streamside into the town centre with lots of pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops.

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

Very well at first however 6 months down the line we have found out the snags we were told would be fixed where not logged by the property manager and now Barratts are refusing to replace or repair them. Absolutely abysmal behaviour that you would expect from a cowboy builder and not massive company. Please note the main property manager has now got involved and has thankfully helped get our smaller outstanding snags fixed however would not fix our biggest issue as you couldn’t see the deep scratches in our windows for 3 meters away (this was not the case) and it wasn’t raised during the 7 day visit (which it was and we were promised it would get sorted). We feel like we have been lied to and mislead by Barratts just so they don’t have to fix their careless mistakes.

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

Record every single conversation from completion with the developer so you have a solid record of exactly what actions they have agreed to take. You are spending your life savings on your home and you will not be treated like this is the case.

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

Away from the main road within walking distance of the high street. Parking very limited for visitors, bins always collected early so need to go out the night before. Construction workers treat it like a race track and construction starts early often before 8am. Road sweeper constantly going up and down which is very noisy. Great choice of shops and eating places on the high street and main supermarket in the town. No open spaces on the site yet as construction only just coming to an end but will be happy once the road is completed as it’s full of pot holes. Also there has been problems with drains across the site and a lot of gardens don’t drain so become very boggy in wet weather

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

Would of liked to have been informed as to the amount of construction traffic that would have been driving past the front of the house. Would be nice if someone from site management came round within a few months of moving in to ask if you had any problems as you can’t get any reply to emails

Please share one thing (or more) which you would change about your development:

Would prefer to have the kitchen at the back of the house not overlooking the road. And would definitely prefer to have more kitchen cupboard space as what is included is impractical.

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

The site is on the edge of a small town. The nearest shops are on the High St which is a good 30-40 minute walk each way. The main High St has also recently closed to traffic making parking a challenge. On the site itself, there are no shops. Parking away from the main street is limited. Spaces designated for visitors are not marked and often in use by residents who own more cars than they have allocated space for. Traffic on the site should be more acceptable once the building works are finish. Currently contractors use it as a race track with little consideration and David Wilson have done nothing to manage it so far. There are very few general use bins on site. There are no dog poo bins at all.

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

The amount of snagging issues has been terrible. We were not fully prepared for this and the time needed by us to manage that. In hindsight, I would have instructed a professional snagging company to manage this for us. David Wilsons customer service has been very poor since the moment we completed.

What is the best feature of your home:

The internals of the house were quite well designed. We have a generous sized garden compared to similar homes.

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

Thornbury town centre is within easy walking distance and has a good range of shops and restaurants given its size. Our position on the estate means there is little passing traffic and it is generally quiet. The refuse and recycling services are excellent. Once completed, Park Farm will be a pleasant place to live, enhanced by friendly residents giving it a real sense of community.

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

It is time well spent in carefully examining your new property for snags.

Please share one thing (or more) which you would change about your development:

Increasing the amount of natural light to the landing and stairs would make it as light as the rest of the house.