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Margaret Kurzempa 39 months ago
AVOID this agency. The following review is a cautionary tale for anyone looking to rent a property with Alliance City Living. This is a comprehensive review after 6 months here. Look up the reviews for UrbanBubble Manchester - no wondered they have rebranded for Alliance City Living.
No security on the premises, no concierge
No break clause contract!
Extremely high electricity usage (over £1800 in less than 6 months)
Very poor fit and finish
Criminal activity on premises (personally lost over £500 worth due to theft)
Shocking sound insulation (you can hear people walking in a corridor in every corner of our flat)
On-site staff polite but unable to resolve any issues
Many of the promised features and services currently unavailable
Very cheap appliances (broken hob after 4 months of usage)
One of the flats is available on Airbnb so loads of weekend parties
To start with, when we moved in September we started to notice little quirks of the flat (which we must’ve omitted during the viewing being amazed by how much was included in the price; concierge, secure car park, gym, security and a rooftop terrace), we started to notice smaller and bigger things: lack of grouting in the bathroom, improperly assembled furniture, uninsulated drain pipe in the kitchen causing hell a lot of noise, drafty windows, horribly loud corridor, radiators with a wrong wiring (in order to switch off the radiator in our bedroom you have to go to the bedroom next door and vice versa), damaged windows’ glaze (windows in a bedroom and living room were covered in black gunk) - we have immediately raised this issues with the staff and wanted them to rectify them since the flats were meant to be finished to the highest standards and clearly weren’t. The problems still persist, despite the fact we have raised them 6 months ago. They have managed to rectify only windows, however attempted it 3 times, first time we were given less than 12 hrs notice so we weren’t able to arrange the necessary time off work, second time when we have managed to make the arrangements window fitters never turned up, and third time, window fitters turned up and changed the windows only to find out that the window in one of the bedroom has been installed improperly and accumulates outrageous amounts of the humidity in between the glazes.
When we’ve received our first bill we were shocked to the core, the electricity usage exceeded the EPC over three times and we were again met by the staff’s reluctant response. The concierge arranged for us a visit of a Construction Manager - who apart from being very rude and unmannered person didn’t provide us with any information, furthermore all the information provided by him were clashing, proving his incompetency. More than that, we were later told by the staff that indeed, our bills seem ridiculously high compare to the other same size and same occupancy flats.
In addition, at the beginning of February our hob has broken down - we’re still waiting for this to be rectified.
In the meantime I have been trying to contact the EPC assessor who conducted the assessment of this flat only to found out his phone number written on the EPC is non existent and the company isn’t interested in registering the complaint. Only today - 8th of March we have been advised by the company that a third party assessor will re-access the flat.
All of that was recently followed by the fact that my bike was stolen from a secured car park, where it was locked with a D-lock in a bike storage area. At this point we were told by the security that they’re not present on site and they’re available only on the phone-call if you see any suspicious activity (as if a motorbike which was stolen a week ago wasn’t enough).
If you’re a working adult, who likes peace and quiet, concierge who will greet you with a smile and want a hassle-free life - stay away from this property. There are cheaper apartment buildings available with way better flats and service than this.