Wilkins Hammond

TL:DR Would I recommend Wilkins Hammond to family and friends or business associates: No Would I recommend to someone who absolutely had no choice but to rent from this company: With caution, read review. I’ve used many letting agencies over the years, having moved around for my career. None have been anything to write home about. If like me you’ve always been a flawless payee, reported faults and got them fixed in good time and received your full bond back at the end of the tenancy every time, you’ve always just accepted you were a tenant. Never a customer, that was the landlord of course. But at least you had a typical idea of what service you’d expect. After meeting my husband, we used a good letting agent and even an even more wonderful landlord in Sheffield for our first rented home together whilst we saved for our own. Our family grew and we moved further out of Sheffield, renting a large old house with plenty of space, through Wilkins Hammond. From the start in our opinion, customer service was poor, you felt like a burden whether you emailed or called for faults fixing (which were always handled inconsistently) and six-monthly reviews felt like an inspection from a social worker. The house needed a lot of TLC inside and out which was evident from the moment we stepped inside the property. Some would say we were naive but we absolutely loved and treated it like our home from the start and made many happy memories there. I believe in constructive review writing (I reply to these things for a living!) so on top of the other things already mentioned, I will take the opportunity to assist your experience with this company and ensure you are not left out of pocket at the end of your tenancy as we were: - Check the inventory before moving in. Every page. Every picture. Every pixel. - Then take every single shot again, from the same angle, for yourself on the date you move in. - Report ANY discrepancy, no matter how pedantic. Every weed, every leaf, every nail you might see in a wall. Everything. Especially if the inventory was taken some time before you moved in. The weather changes, you know. - Then, and only then, should you sign that you are happy with the inventory. End of. You’re probably thinking, that’s what you should do anyway and you’re right. And we did. Or we though we did but we didn’t do it precisely enough on this occasion. A mixture of weak property maintenance, poor customer service and naivety on our part form the ingredients of this story and thankfully we no longer need to worry about it as we are finally in our own home now but we felt so wronged by the parts that weren’t in our control and we felt we needed to share our experience so that other families could be aware. Happy renting and take care.