Where to begin Pettit is the worst Property Management company I have ever dealt with. From their attitudes to the way they handle move outs. We moved into a house just after Christmas. We noted several things wrong with the house including a dangerous dock, a railing that was coming off the wall, etc. They fixed the railing but did not even attempt to fix the dock until after we moved out (not even sure if its been fixed). They did have a contractor come out to look into fixed the dock more than 6 months after we moved in. He told us the dock was incredibly dangerous and should have been replaced years ago..
I completely understand that there are walk throughs to be done at move in and move out, but quarterly inspections?! Are you serious?? Sure its the owners right to enter the home after giving 24 hours notice, but at least tell the tenants at move in that you will be coming into their home and inspecting it every 3 months. At our initial move in we only did a walk through of the home, but the woman showing us the home was in a rush to another showing and left before we could go over the outside of the home or the garage. When we got notice of an inspection at our 3 month mark, I was irritated that I was not told about quarterly inspections at move in. Of course in the contract it says they can enter at any time given 24 hours notice so I couldn't argue. Not that we had anything to hide. I knew our dog had damaged some trim and we would be responsible for paying for it. He was a puppy when we moved in and was teething. Totally fine. What is NOT fine is that the property mangement company demanded that it be fixed (instead of waiting until we moved out and fixing all damages). We told them that we could fix the trim ourselves or look into how much it would cost to fix. No problem, we knew it had to be done. They told us that would be fine and that they would send someone out to estimate the damages... That person didn't just estimate-he ripped out an entire window sill and THREE rooms of trim. Trim that wasn't even needing to be replaced was ripped out! So there went us fixing it or getting our own estimates. This was done in April 2014. I was notified it would take time for the trim to be matched and properly stained etc. Fine. But they left NAILS exposed, sharp CORNERS exposed, and didn't replace the trim until almost THREE months later. I complained several times with emails and phone calls letting Pettit know that I had a 3 year old and a puppy who could get hurt from the nails and exposed corners. They told me the contractor ensured them that he hammered the nails to the side.... like thats okay? and NO they were not all hammered down. I had to hammer them down and cover the sharp corners with towels. I took pictures, dont worry. Then, after after months of waiting and asking for the costs of the replacement-they gave us a bill MONTHS after the trim was replaced and demanded we pay it by the next month or they would take it out of our rent, consider our rent to be short, and evict us. Awesome right? Because a single parent working full time and going to school full time has $500 just laying around. I tried making payment arrangements with them. At this point we only had 2 months left on our lease so I asked them to take it out of our pet deposit and regular deposit ($2,000.00). They said no. They also told me my pet deposit was not for pet damages, it was just to let my dog live there. SERIOUSLY? We ended up finally coming to an agreeable payment plan and we paid it all off.
We planned to move out but due to the holidays we asked to extend our lease. I never received the extension for the lease and figured we just went month to month. In March/April 2015 I notified Pettit we would be moving and made sure that we were not breaking any contract by leaving since we signed no lease. Once notice of intent to vacate was given, their attitudes completely changed. They scheduled back to back viewings not even 5 days after we had given notice of intent to vacate. Sure that is their perogative, however, when I have to lock my dog in the garage, tell my boyfriend and roommate who both work graveyard/night shifts that they can't sleep in their own beds because people are coming to view the house, and when I have to keep my son from eating dinner in his home so that we are not there during a viewing-thats completely unacceptable. Once they found a renter they told us to be out by noon on 04/30 and if we moved out sooner to let them know and to lock the keys in the house so they could take over the responsibility of the home. We ended up moving out on 04/28 and left the keys and notified them on 04/27 that we would be out. They completed the move out inspection on 04/29 and the new tenants moved in on 05/01. I called to inquire about our move out inspection and deposit twice and was told I was harrasing them and to not contact them. LOL So glad to be done with Pettit. read more