J. Brittain Associates — Attraction in Anniston

I'll start by saying that I'm not a JBrittain renter, but I am one whose home is managed by JBrittain. I have only been pleased with the work I have seen out of them. What some of you people need to realize, I will sum up for you... JBrittain has contracts with homeowners to manage/lease their rentals for them. They do not owner/manage. If something happens at my property, they are bound by their contract with me to contact me with the issue (if its simple, not an emergency, or an emergency handled under a certain amount of money). Normal routine work orders are handled by them and I have to sign off on the big ticket money items. That's called business, people. If you move into a house that has appliances and you have your own, yes, you should put yours in storage and use what is provided. If you don't like what's provided, get in writing that and have it removed before you move in to use yours or don't move in. They can't force you to rent from them. You can always say no, but if you accept it, don't be rude to them for upholding a contract you signed. If the contract states that you are to clean up leaving, then clean before leaving. If the apartment wasn't 100% cleaned to your satisfaction upon moving in, do the move in inspection sheet, sign it, have them sign it and get a copy for your records and give them one. That's called a paper trail, people. And then upon your move out, clean it as your signed in your lease you would, regardless of how you inherited it. Because now you are on the contract and the money belongs to you. If you want to see it, do what you signed up to do. As for the deposits being returned to you... that goes hand in hand with doing what you are supposed to do. I, myself am in property management and have been for close to 10 years. There's not a hard and fast 30 day rule for the money to be returned. Did you get the keys back in time, was it over a weekend, how soon after could they walk it, did you leave a good forwarding address? These are all questions that management companies must answer when doing their walk through to determine if you upheld your side of the lease. Then at that point, approval of the owners and the money comes back if everything is satisfactory. 99.999% of the time, you have not been cheated. Its probably more that you didn't uphold your end of the lease, and now you're mad that they did uphold theirs. You can always ask for a copy of charges that can be enforced to your account if you fail to clean the stove, carpet, the place in general, break blinds, dirty drip pans, etc. Follow that list and clean the place like you expect your grandmother to come visit with her "grandmother's white glove treatment" and you should be good. And remember, rent is always due on the 1st. Leases state that you can not withhold rent money due to an unfinished service request. Doing so can and will result in late fees, fines, and even eviction. This is just how it is anywhere.... Calhoun County with JBrittain; Birmingham, AL with any management company; Atlanta, GA, etc. etc. etc. Ignorance of the law is not a free pass, neither is failure to read a contract that you sign. I don't say any of this to scare, make mad, etc anyone reading. Rather I say this to inform you all of what it is to be a good renter and know what is asked of you. I stand on my years of experience and degree in the field as substance to beg of you to act accordingly and...

I rented a house from them in Hokes Bluff for almost a year and a half. When you have a maintenance problem you are supposed to notify J Brittain & they notify the landlord. From the first maintenance problem we had the landlord told us not to call J Brittain & instead call him. We had numerous problems with the heating & cooling unit that the landlord would have a specialist come out & look at but it was not fixed for months. When putting our dryer in the laundry room the flooring vinyl was not laid down correctly, there was too much vinyl & not enough floor, so the vinyl did not lay flat on the floor & bubbled up. Our dryer accidentally ripped it & when I told J Brittain the vinyl was not laid correctly I was told "it was professionally done like that & it was called loose laid vinyl". I consulted an actual flooring business & was told that it was not laid correctly. I was charged $125 to repair something that needed repaired before I moved in. One of the light bulbs in the laundry room also did not work from the first day we moved it, but I was charged $26 for it. I don't believe a light bulb costs $26. I continued to pay the same company that mowed the yard for my landlord to mow it. They had slung rock into the outside vinyl & gotten a mower stuck in the yard. That was not my fault but yet I was charged $450 for it. The guidelines of my lease stated that I had to clean the house throughly. I hired a professional cleaning company to come clean it. After J Brittain inspected it they found numerous things wrong with it & requested it to be recleaned. A PROFESSIONAL CLEANING COMPANY is what I hired. At that point I was given the things that I need to fix or clean to get my $725 deposit back. Everything was cleaning things other than the vinyl that needed repaired. My biggest complaint is that after all that I get a letter in the mail & a check for under $100 with a list of things that I was charged for. The list included 5 things and only one of them I was notified about. They decided to charge for things that I was never notified about. A month before I was told "the vinyl in the laundry room is all I see that you'll be charged for" & that was directly from the owner of the agency. I highly recommend you do NOT use this agency. They will charge you for petty things to get the most money out of you. Also, I was in the process of building a house when my year lease ended. I asked to sign a 3 or 4 month lease until it was completed & was told no. I was charged an extra $200 each month for 4 months. I understand that the property needs to be left in good condition, but I was a great renter. I left the house in almost the exact same condition it was when I moved it. Growing up, my grandfather owned a house he rented out & I saw a lot of nasty, dirty, and horrible things that were done to his house, including someone bring it down. This is outrageous & I feel like this agency does not do very good business &...

This company has screwed us over in so many different ways, I don't think I can fit them all in one review. We rented month-to-month while working a short contract in Anniston. We paid $1100 a month, thinking we would be WELL taken care of for that price, for a 2 bedroom apartment very similar to the one we had in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, which cost $1200 a month, and where living expenses are 3 times as high.

When we moved in, we were not given keys to the main entry. We were told it was our responsibility to get them from the neighbors and make a copy. We never got a mailbox key. There was only one key to the apartment door, for two people. The apartment was advertised as 'fully furnished executive' but past large appliances there was nothing. No broom, no vacuum, no silverware, sheets, blankets or dishes. There were dead cock roaches all over the floor and a layer of dust over everything. It had obviously not been cleaned for a long time. I noted all of this in reviewing the place upon moving in. When I told them the apartment was full of roaches, they told me it was not their problem. When I asked about keys they told me it was my problem. When we left messages to talk to people about our situation, they were not returned. Nor were emails.

We established very clearly with the owner before leaving that we did not think it was fair to ask us to pay for cleaning better than we could do with 409 and paper towels, because they had never provided us with a broom or vacuum or a mop (though 'fully furnished' apartments usually have this stuff, as traveling workers don't often fly in with brooms in their suitcases), and because it was already SO dirty when we got there. We also agreed they would not charge us for cleaning the carpet, as we were only there for 2 months, there was only carpet in the bedroom, and it was dirty when we moved in. She SHOOK OUR HANDS and agreed to this. Obviously that means nothing.

It's been 36 days since we moved out, and I was just told on the phone that our security deposit refund would go in the mail today (AFTER the 30 day period they are legally bound to stay within. Who can't make it to the mailbox within 30 days?) and that we WERE charged for cleaning the apartment, and for cleaning the carpet. Also, I was just told that the owner won't be able to call me back to talk about this until Monday. It's now Wednesday morning. I am pretty certain I'm leaving some things out. Our whole experience with these people has been beyond frustrating. They made it obvious they would rather squeeze every penny out of us, than behave like decent people.

STAY AWAY...