A HORRIFIED tenant discovered the kickboarding in the kitchen of his luxury rented flat appeared to be held together with Stanley knife blades.

James Stephenson was brushing the kitchen floor at the £1,300 a month property in Berry Court, St Peter's Road, Bournemouth when the kickboard was dislodged.

"I then pulled it back to look how to re-attach it and I couldn't believe what I saw," said Mr Stephenson, a car-sales executive. "There was rubble the builders hadn't cleared away but there was also these Stanley knife blades which appeared to be holding it together."

Mr Stephenson, who is now moving, said he contacted management company Radian but: "Their attitude almost felt as if it was "it couldn't have been us" as if I would have done it."

The Stanley knife incident was just one in a long line of things which Mr Stephenson says have gone wrong at £27 million Berry Court which was built for Radian by the Bournemouth Development Company – a public-private partnership between the then borough and Morgan Sindall Investments Ltd.

"The fire alarms kept going off and then that seemed to cause the hot water to fail which would last for days," claimed Mr Stephenson. "The whole block was affected."

He said the electric front doors "didn't work for a week" after being smashed during a gale.

"The dishwasher broke down and it took me around two-and-a-half months to finally get someone in to deal with it," he said. "You'd press the button to start, go away and return to find nothing had happened."

When it was fixed, he claims, the machine "just worked for 30 seconds" then ran cold only.

He claimed the LED lights had 'gaps' and didn't fit correctly and his gravest worry came when he discovered hypodermic syringes in the stairwell of the car-park adjacent to the block.

"Admittedly the stairwell is council owned but it's part of the agreement with Berry Court that your agreement covers a car-parking space there," he said.

He claims that when he alerted the company just before Christmas 2018, their response was: "Why don't you phone someone else".

"They give you the idea that living there will be hassle free everything and it looks swish until you get closer," he said. "They seem to be getting away with saying things are great when they are not."

A spokesman for BDC referred inquiries to Radian who said: "We take reports of problems to our properties very seriously and act to resolve issues as quickly as we can. We were made aware of some concerns at Berry Court and worked with our partners, Morgan Sindall, to correct any flaw within the apartments, and supported our partners at Bournemouth Borough Council to ensure the car park situation was promptly dealt with. "

Berry Court was officially opened by town MP Conor Burns who said at the time: "The flats are of a very high standard and in a superb location. This is exactly the type of development we need to see more of nationally to address the supply of homes to rent."

On its website Berry Court describes itself as: "A home you’ll love in the heart of town" and describes "our stunning collection of one, two and three bedroom apartments and breathtaking penthouse suites" with "24/7 maintenance and repair".