Vonder — Local services in London

What I believe to be a very fair review of Vonder Wembley We stayed in the Merevale House building 10th floor for 6 months from June to December during this period bills were inclusive. I would have given 4 stars if the check out had been easier and the lifts not been such a MASSIVE issue!

Apartment overall was very good! Pros: very spacious rooms with lots of storage. Very high quality furniture from the likes of ferm living and other well known designers. Always warm and the internal balcony really adds an extra room which is great if you want to work from home. The kitchen is amazing Siemens and Miele appliances and great quartz worktops with loads of cupboard space. Cons: no blinds were fitted and so in the summer the sun shines in and BOILS the apartment we asked to install our own blinds and we’re told no. Other neighbours have fashioned makeshift blinds with blankets and cardboard this really needs to be fixed, blinds should be provided. The kitchen accessories (pans, utensils and crockery) completely contrast the quality of the kitchen, the cheapest Poundland style stamped metal cutlery, pans that don’t even work on the induction hob etc. The boiler had a problem where the hot water would cut out randomly and show an error message until you powered off the boiler at the wall and back on. This was never really dealt with by maintenance after a few emails and so we just kind of lived with it.

Building and management was where Vonder begins to spiral causing rage amongst the residents Pros The facilities are lovely, nice gym shared living space and pool table. There are always activities going on if that’s your thing. The concierge on a night is one of the nicest guys ever. The coworking space on level 1 is really nice too especially the table tennis room and the communal kitchen! Cons The poor management and property maintenance was what eventually drove us out of Vonder in favour of their competitors Quintain. The lifts (OMG THE LIFTS) there was 5 total in the development but there might as well have been 1, I have never seen all 3 in my building operational at the same time. Most of the time it was just one. Occasionally ZERO! There is no parcel room, so you were reliant on the concierge accepting your parcel. During the Christmas period the staff seemed to think it was going to be too much work for them so they just chose to refuse all deliveries or just let them leave it in the corridor. Incredibly frustrating! Sort out a parcel room! Every other building I’ve lived in has one. The ‘exclusive lounge’ that you see in the pictures and description of the building basically does not exist it is always locked. We checked out in December and have still not received any communication from Vonder to say thanks or goodbye and they haven’t even notified the deposit protection scheme so we haven’t got our deposit back and will be forced to have to pay a solicitor to file a Statutory Declaration for the money back if they continue to leave our tenancy open. The bins were also a disaster they kept moving them and closing them it was hard to know what was going on really. The gym closes at 11pm which is annoying if you like to go late at night. And the security gate to the building from Olympic way was broken for months meaning anyone could hang around the entryway and sneak in. Overall not a lost cause, better management and maintenance would make all the difference. The apartment was great as long as you were on a low floor with no direct sun and bought your own accessories. A bit of investment would go a long...

Beautiful new development but their Management is the worst. DO NOT recommend it to anyone

First and foremost, all of the reviews which have 4 and 5 stars are fake, so do not believe what you are reading.

I was one of the firsts residents to move into the building in November 2021. On my viewing, I was promised I'd soon (within 2-3 weeks time) have access to the gym, cinema and residents lounge. Gym was finally opened mid December with very ridiculous working hours - between 8/9AM to 6/7PM. Through my whole stay residents were never allowed in the lounge area except few events which were organised there.

I was reassured few times that all bills are covered within the rent I was paying. In April 2022 their management sent emails to all of the residents that we have excessive bills and that we have to pay without even any proof, just some amounts written for every month. Some of my friends had bills for over £1,000 for a certain month, in which they weren't even in London. After numerous emails from my side, I was never provided with proof on how much kWs I've had per month. Ridiculous!

My parcels were stolen few times from the Ground Floor and their Management never took any actions against it. They never bothered to reply to my emails or refund me, since this was their mistake.

The lifts in the building were always faulty. I got stuck in one of them for 40 minutes. Once again, the management never bothered to apologise to me personally for the whole inconvenience. Luckily, I had signal in the lift, so I managed to calls some friends to help me.

There were squatters living on the upper floors in Fridman Building for weeks and the Management never knew about this, until one night when they tried to break into my friends' flat. As a precaution, all the Management did was install fake cameras throughout the buildings. They even reduced the night shift security to just one person.

Overall, I met incredible people during my stay, but if you value yourself and your safety, I do not recommend you living in...

Zero security and absolute thieves!

All the 5 star reviews are from people who work there which is kinda pathetic.

As mentioned in the other reviews, there were squatters living in the apartment for weeks and the management was in denial and refused to take any action for the longest time. It was taken care of only when some residents threatened to go to the police. The security is still rubbish after the incident.

They claimed to cover £46 in electricity and £32 in water per month but have given literally everyone excess energy and water bills which makes no sense. This was before the energy bills went up. Some of the tenants even said they weren’t in town for more than half the month. As soon as the cost of living crisis hit, they sensed the opportunity and removed the utilities and increased rent by at least 40-50% for new tenants and renewals.

I had move out due to personal reasons so I requested them to find a tenant and terminate my tenancy as soon as possible so that I do not have to pay the rent during the notice period. After a week I find out that someone has moved in to my apartment, they didn’t even bother telling me or taking my key and when I asked for my deposit back, they withheld £185 for cleaning a tiny 1 bed apartment WHICH I WOULD’VE GOTTEN CLEANED PROFESSIONALLY FOR £20 IF THEY JUST TOLD ME THAT THEY FOUND A NEW TENANT AND ASKED ME TO HAND OVER THE KEY A COUPLE OF DAYS IN ADVANCE. After repeatedly arguing with them about the absurdity of all this, they agreed to give back £85 as “good will”.

The lifts never work - people get stuck in them all the time, packages go missing and the concierge has no idea, frequent power cuts, they can email excess energy bills but can’t respond to queries and repair/maintenance requests. I’m so glad I moved out of there. Even now there’s a new problem everyday according to my friends who still live there.

The only good thing about this place was Glen, the letting agent who showed me...