Matt
1/5
My partner and I decided to move here at my request above many other places, we wanted to move into the centre but I really wanted somewhere with a community feel and how wrong we were.
Within the first few months of moving into the apartment we had so many issues. The first day of moving in the decorating which had been done from a team hired in by The Slate Yard was awful, paint was splashed everywhere, all over the radiators, mirrors, back of doors, door frames, tiles, absolutely no care was taken in getting the 'luxury' apartment ready for us. We brought this to the attention of Philip (General Manager at the time I believe) who admitted it was awful, he was ashamed of it.
We then had a faulty immersion heater control panel (which we were told by maintenance it was nothing but running too much at the same time so the fuse box was tripping, even though we had nothing on), the immersion heater had been turned off and not put back on by maintenance, I switched it on and the utility cupboard flashed with electric. Turns out there were wires exposed burning through the inside of the box.
On top of that, 2 large leaks in the apartment due to a burst toilet pipe (once is fair enough, a second because it wasn't repaired correctly is not), flooding the floor into the spare room causing it to warp and costing us a months worth of water overnight. Philip at the time again apologised for all this and said it was one of the worst move in experiences he's dealt with.
The reason we chose The Slate Yard was due to the community feel pushed on socials and their website, unfortunately this is far from the truth. Since moving here, there has been 1 occasion (other than yoga) in which The Slate Yard has tried to get us together, which was when we first moved in. With the summer period now gone, those photos of outside entertainment, drinks and fun with the community are far gone. The most community I have felt with The Slate Yard is a Whatsapp group created by residents to moan about all their problems!
'Luxury' is a word used a lot to describe The Slate Yard, by The Slate Yard, but I've never known luxury like it and the residents I have spoken to (myself included) certainly wouldn't. With dog mess between the buildings from owners who can't be bothered to pick it up, constant weed smoking by residents, filling apartments with the smell if you have your windows open (having 5 people one after the other smoke weed under my window the other night was great), constant construction work, the filthy windows which we can't see out of (the majority of residents within the far block can now just see a construction site), the breaking down of lifts taking weeks to repair only to break again because they got too hot, the 'safety' of the development in which a homeless man can get through 2 secured doors and then start trying to open apartments, as well as having a cleaner walk straight in after getting the wrong appartment (the door was unlocked by them), the constant tapping at night on the metal window sills from rain or the banging from the windows as they expand in the heat in the morning, there is a lot to say about the complex, but luxury doesn't come into it. This has all happened within just 6 months and from the high hopes we had for here, I cannot wait to have the ability to leave having now become extremely fed up.
The only shining stars of The Slate Yard is the front desk staff, more specifically Jordan & Andrea. Always there to chat and help within working hours as much as they can and who I think get the brunt of the issues residents have, but this is very much an upper management issue.
The 'old fashioned values landlords' phrase on the website is entirely true, they're that old fashioned I think you need to use a carrier pigeon to communicate as emails and calls don't work 90% of the time. How The Slate Yard used to operate or whatever picture is painted online with previous photos and videos, is not the case and I beg people don't fall victim to the same thing we did and end up wasting upwards of £1,600 a month on rent
