H-Town Living — Local services in Houston

I would personally not recommend that any potential clients or renters work with H-Town Living. Otherwise, in my opinion, you risk dealing with negligence and bad business practices.

I was a renter at a townhouse managed by H-Town Living. Upon moving in, the property was extremely dirty. This was very frustrating, but would’ve been overlookable for my girlfriend and I if H-Town Living hadn’t gone on to charge us for cleaning after we moved out. I had informed H-Town Living both directly and through their move-in condition form that the property was dirty when we moved in. Before moving out, we cleaned it thoroughly. Before moving out, we also scheduled a meeting with Alice of H-Town Living to do a walk-through of the townhouse. At no time did she express any concern. Later, $300 for cleaning was deducted from our security deposit.

It is also my opinion that there was deception, negligence, or both from H-Town Living when we were first shown the property and were shown a backyard outdoor space that was attached directly to one of the two bedrooms in the townhouse and enclosed by fences outside. It was shown to us as a private space. Within a month of living at the property, the outdoor space was frequented by non-tenants. When we brought this issue to H-Town Living’s attention, they told us it was potentially not our private space, but we could use it. When I expressed my frustration about this to H-Town Living, we were strung along for 11 months, being told that they would check on it. The issue was never addressed or resolved despite my frequent checking in on it and asking for answers.

Also, during our tenancy, a window on the front door broke. We notified H-Town Living and submitted a request for repair using all the required processes. We were told in writing that it would be fixed. For 6 months, until after we moved out, it was never fixed. Throughout this time, we repeatedly expressed to H-Town Living that we felt unsafe with the broken window. It’s on the front door in a vulnerable place, and in Houston, you don’t want any points of vulnerability where you live. If that’s not bad enough, when we moved out, $600 was deducted from our security deposit for that same window.

When I received the balance of the security deposit, which was received later than required by law, I reminded H-Town Living of the circumstances regarding the broken window, the move-in condition, and I informed them of other concerns I had about other charges, all amounting to a total of around $1,300. I was essentially ignored. H-Town Living refused to provide any invoices or receipts for the charges, accept any responsibility for the process, provide any legitimate justifications for the charges, and they even went so far as to deny their receipt of my original move-in inventory condition form, which I have documented through Dot Loop and in an email, which would’ve nullified their claims for at least a portion of the charges.

Additionally, they didn’t prorate our final month’s rent. When I asked for the correct amount to be returned, I was again ignored. There were other problems experienced with H-Town Living, but I feel those stated here best summarize the themes of concern I would want to be aware of as a potential client or renter.

I shared all these concerns directly with H-Town Living and tried to reach a reasonable compromise regarding the charges, which again, they completely ignored. I told H-Town Living that I intended to write this review, giving them a fair opportunity to take prior action, which they did not. It was the responsibility of H-Town Living to represent and manage all issues and claims fairly and honestly, and they did not.

I personally believe H-Town Living acted in bad faith, were negligent, incompetent, and dismissive. If you don’t want to potentially deal with those things or the consequences thereof, in my opinion, I would suggest staying far away. This entire review is my opinion of H-Town Living based on my personal experience renting...

If I could give zero stars, I absolutely would. H-Town Living provided the absolute worst renting experience we ever dealt with. Their specialities include dishonesty, unprofessionalism, unresponsiveness, and rudeness.

When we first moved in, it was very underwhelming at how unclean the home was. Any time we had issues with the home (which was frequently because the home was vacant for almost two months before we moved in, while the owner lives in Cambodia), it was like pulling teeth to simply get a response from H-Town Living in a timely manner. We had issues with our breaker for MONTHS before it got fixed… not only did it take forever, but Alice from H-Town Living would send some contractor out, give us a timeframe so large that either my husband or I would have to miss work, all to sit around all day and it not even get fixed by said contractor. We had to flip breakers three-four times daily.

Also, about a month after first moving in (December of 2022) we experienced a busted pipe. Someone came out to fix it and with the repairs they had to do, along with the moisture from the leak, the flooring in the laundry room was damaged. I sent photos and videos of this damage… only to have $385 taken out of our security deposit to “repair” said damage that actually had nothing to do with us. When questioned, we received no response.

When going to use our microwave one day, I pulled on the handle to open the door and the handle broke off. I went through the proper measures to put in a repair request, to which I received a text message from Alice from H-Town Living accusing my family and I of “yanking” off the microwave handle, insinuating we had damaged the microwave. This happened after a few unsatisfactory encounters with Alice, and I ended up asking her if she treated all of her tenants like this. We are a bi-racial family and much of how she acted felt very accusatory and discriminatory.

Again, shortly after we moved in, we noticed that the front of the refrigerator’s water and ice part didn’t work properly. Whenever trying to get water, water would leak from the bottom of refrigerator. When brought to H-Town Living’s attention, we were told “just don’t use the refrigerator for water then.” As if we didn’t pay rent for all amenities to be working properly at the property.

In September of this year (2023), our AC stopped working. In Houston, during the summer, you can imagine how quickly it became uncomfortable within our home. We have a seven-year old son and immediately called Alice as this was an emergency… I was told to wait 48 hours after replacing the air filters to call back and give her an update. We replaced the air filters immediately and it kept getting hotter in our home. H-Town Living did not seem to care, AT ALL. It quickly became 85 degrees in our home, and was steady climbing higher. We became desperate and ended up paying someone $525 to fix what was a Freon problem with our AC. I got one of the rudest phone calls I’ve ever received in regards to this. H-Town Living truly expected us to sit, uncomfortably, in our 85+ degree home until they felt like fixing it. Again, as if we were not paying $1,950 in rent every single month.

Every interaction with H-Town Living was unpleasant. They never made us feel like they cared about our living environment, and always came to us in the most accusatory way. All I can say is, if you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with these crooks, KEEP RECEIPTS. By receipts I mean text messages, emails, photos, videos, and everything documented before moving in. This place, and these...

I want to express the courage it takes to write this review while still living here, but I feel compelled to warn others. I've never encountered a property management company that handles issues so personally rather than professionally. After voicing my concerns about the living conditions in my townhome, they have refused to address future maintenance requests.

For instance, I haven't received a response in over a month regarding a ticket about a slow-draining pipe. I'm paying nearly $4,000 in rent, yet I can’t get basic repairs completed. I've submitted around 20 tickets, and more than half were marked as completed without any follow-up from maintenance. They’ll close the ticket, so I’ll need to create a duplicate with hopes that they’ll see it “this time.” It's disturbing that a company can operate this way without consequences. Yet, if I'm even two days late on my rent, I hear from them immediately.

This is the first time I've faced retaliation for expressing concerns about maintenance issues. They seem to be deliberately avoiding necessary repairs. I fear that when it's time to move out, they will try to take as much as possible from my deposit. I still have months left in this beautiful townhome, but the management makes it feel worthless, treating me as if only my money matters.

It's frustrating and disheartening. I worry that I may not have enough documentation to pursue legal action if it comes to that, and I feel they know it. Normally, I wouldn’t share such strong sentiments about a company while still residing in the property, but given the treatment I've received, I feel there’s nothing...