Vonder Hill, N19

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

Archway is an up and coming area, with excellent links from Hill House to both overground train (5 mins walk) and underground tube (1 minute). Easy access to value supermarket shops like Aldi help those looking to shop on a budget (alternatively M&S directly below if budget not an issue). M&S deliveries can be noisy in the mornings if you live above; however management are actively making efforts to resolve this including resurfacing works to the road area. Unsure re parking, I do not own a car in London.

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

N/A - unable to comment, I have not raised any issues myself.

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

High monthly electricity/hot water/heating bills - eg March 2023 was £120 for a 35sq m studio with the heating turned off the whole month. (On top of this Thames water bill, council tax, Internet.etc). Additionally the building is only linked up to Virgin Media for the Internet, again I have found this is costly compared with other providers.

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

Variety of restaurant and many grocers around the corner. Easily accessible to public transport. Neighbourhood can get quite rowdy at night but management is looking into it.

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

Please refer to landlord but ultimately landlord is difficulty to reach.

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

Property can only moved in after midday of the day of tenancy

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

Hill House is a modern development well located in zone 2, London. Archway area is under development in the past 5 years and definitely there is more to be improved. Lots of supermarkets, parks and schools around. Minuses is homeless people and criminal activities.

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

Building management is great. Every problem is resolved quickly and with personal approach.

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

Noise from loading area of M&S. it is awfully disturbing.

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

Archway is a great place to be overall. Great range of shops, hill house is above an M&S food hall, there’s also coop, Sainsburys, Aldi, Tesco all within walking distance. Big leisure centre right next door. Can be very noisy and a bit scary at night, however, we’ve never actually been harmed by anyone in the 3 years we’ve lived here.

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

They almost always ignore emails - even about urgent and important things or just ignore parts of your emails entirely. Their emails are rude and disrespectful, they treat us with contempt. They have caused us enormous distress over the years. We keep telling ourselves the drama is over but it really never is with Vonder. Scam artists

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

Vonder are scam artists. You have to fight for everything, they will try to take your money. They will not answer your emails or calls

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

Area started off nice and quiet, but now feels like a building site Construction noise from building in front of the former post office all day Large council flat construction planned for later, will disrupt privacy further Regular antisocial behavior near the building, attracted by nearby liquor store Abundance of supermarkets, including M&S and Aldi Limited options for coffee shops and restaurants No allocated parking for residents despite a large car park in the basement Discrimination by the council in parking allocation

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

The management of the building is extremely chaotic, and there is a high turnover of staff. One major issue is the lack of responsiveness to urgent queries, especially regarding essential services like hot water. It is frustrating that outside of traditional office hours 9am - 5pm nothing happens. Over the weekend for instance don't expect anyone on the emergency phone number to actually take action and address the issue till Monday. Response time for general issues and repairs is unacceptably long, ranging from a minimum of two weeks to a whole month. This means that residents are left without essential services for extended periods of time. A fast repair requiring tenant to follow up daily due to lack of hot water will on average take over 14 days to resolve. This is not an exaggeration but an unfortunate reality.

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

Building: Nice Landlord: Not so great Issues: Understaffed, lack of service, policy changes without notice. Utility bills: Extortionate