darryn

Tristan’s townhouse, and Kellie’s also. It has 2 car spots. It is more than $100 a week cheaper than my current apartment. After we saw the place on Saturday I immediately went to the real estate agent and applied. I even offered $5/week more than they asked for, just to increase my chance of beating what I assumed to be many competitors. I have a good job and good references, and I have the $5 edge. In the bag.

On Monday afternoon I found out that my application was not accepted, and suffice to say I was a bit disappointed. I asked the agent why I had been overlooked, unfortunately she was “not at liberty to disclose that information”. Privacy Act, I guessed. I could only imagine the stellar qualities of the applicant who had beaten me.

Yesterday I went to the real estate office to pick up my application form (I wanted to use the references again). Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the townhouse in question was advertised for next Saturday’s open house round. I had not been beaten, I had simply been rejected. The owner had decided that it was better losing $530* than having me as a tenant. A kick in the guts.

Since no applications had been accepted for this property, I took it that it was open for applications. It was my guess that I was rejected because I was applying for 2 people, yet Kirsten did not submit an application (she had to go to work). Luckily Kirsten had the day off, so she organised her references and we met at the agent’s to apply jointly. Whilst filling out the application we found out the truth - I was rejected because I have a cat. It must have taken a bit of sleuthing to find that out, as I had not included Stimpy in the application. I intended to give her a better home (i.e. Dad’s or Michelle’s). We re-applied on the understanding that we weren’t bringing any cats with us.

Tonight Kirsten informed me that she wanted to withdraw the application. She couldn’t live with herself, farming out the cats for her own convenience. At that point, picking a property just got a whole lot easier, as 99% had just become unavailable. Although there are a lot of cats in the townhouse complex that we applied for, it is pretty certain that any application that mentions cats will be rejected out of hand. Even after we had privately negotiated with the owner of our current apartment, who likes cats, the real estate agent rejected our application (pre-approved by the owner) on the grounds that we had cats. The owner had OK’d cats. Cats are allowed in the building. Real estate auto-reaction: no cats allowed. The owner actually had to stand up for the tenant, against the agent!

Today (i.e. in the morning, not the middle of the night) I will inform the real estate that I wish to amend the application to include cats. I will offer to include a clause in the lease which specifically deals with us making good any cat-caused damage to the premises, to the satisfaction of the owner. I don’t know why such a clause would be needed, seems to me it would be implied in the Agreement. I think it would be good for the owner because they get security. Good for us because we could get a quiet place to live. The owner would have to have some real cat prejudice to reject this offer. At least, that’s what I hope.

If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t matter. Other places will come along. I do not have to move out of my current apartment by any particular date. I may stay here for another year. Who knows?

I’ll keep you posted, although I won’t find out anything until early next week.

*$530 is the lost week’s rent, plus a year’s $5 extras.

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Popularity: 3% [?]