JH-Lettings Sittingbourne

Avoid JH Lettings, in Sittingbourne, Kent, if you can. Thank goodness Julie the original owner & her daughter Anna, are long gone because they were hopeless! Her life was 1 long holiday which she loved to brag about; paid for by her excessive & uncalled for charges to both tenants & landlords. This is a warning to both Tenants & Landlords because: Properties weren't even visited before they were advertised; outdated photos were used and, in our case, the wrong house & details were advertised on line & even over the phone! How they got away with it, I'll never know but being an 'unregulated industry', means it's NEVER good for the customer? But unregulated for not much longer, hopefully? Then at long last, England & N Ireland will catch up with Scotland & Wales & be better & safer countries to rent in. Hilary was the third cog of that original team & the current owner and she still can't be trusted! She proved that very recently, when she pretended she couldn't remember us & all the cock ups they'd made, which initially caused my relationship with my landlord to become a very rocky, unsatisfactory & unpleasant one from the start; therefore, also being partially responsible for making our first few years here, very painful & stressful. Greed & not taking responsibility for her mistakes or actions, continue as well as laziness when listing properties, by still using old out of date photos; not giving true statements about the properties & of course leaving out the many negatives that will apply: I.e. if central heating isn't mentioned, then there isn't any! The property might have awful old storage heaters, which don't work after midday but cost a fortune to run, take my word for it. We were promised an "immaculate house" & because we lived overseas, we had to trust them. But the reality couldn't have been further from the truth! We & our removal company, turned up to find a smashed downstairs window; large burns on the lounge carpet; all the internal doors in a dilapidated state, which had to be replaced; it hadn't been decorated in at least 6 years, even though the previous tenant was a heavy smoker & drinker, so it stunk when we moved in with our two young children. The list of problems was endless, inside & out & it took over 2.5 years to get them seen to, but because it's never been looked after & just patched up the whole time, the problems just continued. That's thanks to having a wealthy 'scrooge' for a landlord, who has too many properties to look after, between himself & his two part time assistants & no one employed to do the physical repairs/maintenance ! Avoid J H Letting's if you possibly can but if you can't, then question everything you're told & make sure you visit the property at all times & on different days of the week. Also scrutinise the property inside & out & determine for yourself, whether it's been well maintained? Look at the quality of the decor & finishings, and if they don't stack up, walk away. Hilary sets the rent as high as possible because it satisfies her own greed, as well as her industry's continual & successful attempts, at increasing private rents to the exorbitant & unaffordable levels they've become during the past 5 to 6 years. Many landlord's, especially those with too many properties, are just as shameless. Profit over anything else! Small private landlords with a few properties or less, are the best to rent from; being more caring & diligent. Their rents are often more reasonable & rarely increased where as the bigger landlords like my own, will put theirs up every year because they can! It's another 'unregulated industry' but again, hopefully not for much longer? The advertised rent is always high because Letting Agents expect to get less. You must HAGGLE, up to 10% ideally & don't listen to her when she pretends there's loads of interest in the property because it's bound to be untrue, especially this time of year! Letting Agents & Estate Agents are salespeople, who've not been trained or even qualified to do their jobs! They've earned a terrible reputation for very good reasons & J H Lettings in Sittingbourne, Kent, is sadly no different!