Green looking renders

Had a time off and walked around the city, I was amazed with the number of cardiffs newly built buildings that their renders had turned green due to very poor standard paint used

-Morrison's down the bay, looks awful
- travel lodge down the bay looks the worst out of all I ve seen
-altoloso in town
-Most of the flats around the bay, even the wood render is full of moss
-the flats in penarth marina are grey/brown all over
-prospect place a few building there are looking very green/black in colour

It shows with the flats service charge does not really go on maintaining the building to a good standard, if I owned one of these flats I would be deeply worried and angry about the possibility of my property price dropping;(((

As for morrisons and travel lodge I think I ll ring there head office as it can not be good for business and is not good for our city as we get tourists looking around

I think the issue about service charges and maintenance is actually going to become increasingly important as more people live in flats and large scale developments, especially in city centres or big regeneration areas.

On the one hand, I think that service charges are a source of potentially excess profits for the recipient of those charages (and ultimately developers and landowners who can sell the rights to these charges for a higher price). You see some of the service charges in London and they can be eyewatering. Even accounting for the fact you need to build up surpluses to pay for periodic maintenance and eventually big projects (like re-roofing), I just can't see how some places justify 4k+ a year on hundreds of units. You add up the annual running costs of say 4 concieges (to provide around the clock cover) and the costs of other staff - cleaners, and gardeners, and associated running costs. And you add up to just a small fraction.

One way to solve this is for the leaseholders to exercise their right to manage. And to have more developments where leaseholders jointly hold freehold. But then the risk is differnet. I think people are short-termist and just don't appreciate the need to build up large surpluses to then pay for large-scale periodic works. Naturally they want to keep the service charges as low as possible. So you get postponement of works, and then potentially big bills dropping on doormats at the time of a big project.

Don't know what the solution to that conundrum of potential overcharging versus short-termism. Better information for leaseholders?

Of those places I still think Altolusso looks OK. The Aspect was looking pugly though (although has it recently been repainted?). Wood panels are always a terrible idea in my view.

Morrisons and the Travelodge can easily tart up their facades with a cherry picker and an industrial jet wash. They are indeed pretty turgid looking at the moment. I do wonder whether the Morrisons store might close - it's very quiet for a major store requiring heavy footfall volume to make a buck.

Re: the residentials - the maintenance regime at Adventurers Quay is pretty impeccable compared to most other developments that I'm aware of. The small development next between Wetherspoons & Mermaid Quay in the Bay is also well maintained - Sovereign Quay however looked absolutely shocking when I last observed.

Funnily enough, I don't think that green moss on wood panelling is unsightly - it can look rather organic and 'eco'. The mouldy looking stuff that gathers on the cheap render however....

We have recently successfully ousted the previous management and are now enjoying the benefits of Right to Manage.

All the hard work is done by a few dedicated directors. We have the power to kick out any Management that does not perform and it is much easier to check costs. Which was made difficult by the previous management.

Our management fees are not low, say about £20 per sq m, but this does cover pool and gym and a lot of landsaping and upkeep.

They include reserve fees and also foreseeable things, such as 5 yr painting of all exterior and communial areas.

Rendering is an interesting subject. There are several different types here and the worse thing to do is jet wash or paint. We have engaged proffessionals to treat all, most of the stains are caused by bad construction, particularly at the roof overhang. Previous management messed around with it, this time we are hopeful all buildings will be cleaned by the end of the year and the cost is being met from existing reserves.

Hope this helps

Where do you live vasco?

Talking about dilapidated façades, has anyone seen the west facing side of Ty Pont Haern? (aka Liberty Bridge for amazon deliveries!!)
Every second window is broken, looks like hard board behind them. I can't believe double glazed glass breaks that easy, maybe its a secondary unit that goes, but either way its looking more like a run down soviet style gulag.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse! It needs to be used as case law of terrible planning decisions.

Our management fees are not low, say about £20 per sq m, but this does cover pool and gym and a lot of landsaping and upkeep.

They include reserve fees and also foreseeable things, such as 5 yr painting of all exterior and communial areas.

That actually does seem fairly low to me if there is a pool and gym too. It works out at about £1,400-1,500 for a typical-sized two bed apartment. Perhaps in a larger development it can go further. But a large scheme would need to be building up hundreds of thousands in reserve fees to pay for long-term major maintenance, like re-roofing, re-wiring, etc.

My about £20 was an estimate of course. Checking it is around £23 sq m.

In Century Wharf the majority of the apartments are larger than average, my 2 bedroom is 111 sq m, or 1200 sq ft. Some of the one beds are 7-800 sq ft.

Now we have control, the expenses have fallen and I feel much happier now we get to decide who is doing what.

Previously I effectively had little say, now we try to employ local trades.

Regular maintenance is now performed, which should help to avoid most major issues in the future.

As always, there remain some problems to overcome, especially on an Estate of nearly 1000 apartments, overall life here for a retired person is pleasurable.