WWWHHHHHHYYYYY????

So Mrs. Worrier called me. She and the Mr. were turned down for a home this week. The company gave two reasons: 1) credit and 2) rental history.

For whatever reason, the fact they had credit challenges did not bother her. But the rental history! You see, they lived in a family home for 16 years. Then they moved into another rental and lasted 10 months. There were lawyers involved. There were non-disclosure agreements signed. It was ugly. Around the first of December, the Worriers got a sizable chunk of money for their trouble and then spent every single dollar. That actually kind of makes me queasy. I am talking a dollar number with at least five places to the left of the decimal.

Today when I spoke with her, she asked why would this new company turn her down because of rental history, especially with a non-disclosure in place. I explained that the former company cannot talk about the incident (and probably doesn't want to, given the property management company legally lost). But, if asked about them as renters, they would have an opportunity to answer accurately. For example, perhaps this new landlord asked if the Worriers paid on time?

"Why would this new company ask about that?" And that is the point I started pounding my head into the palm of my hand. Why indeed? When I was a landlord that was the first question I asked about potential tenants. Everything I needed to know from this teensy inquiry, "Was the rent on time?" pretty much stemmed from this particular question. And, if the answer is no, then I could guess the rest.

Mrs. Worrier, instead of answering me, just fussed and whined about their non-disclosure agreement and what might have been said in a conversation I WAS NOT PART OF. I told her I could not speculate what was discussed, and perhaps her cell minutes might be better spent calling her former property management company and ask what was said. That didn't mollify her. Of course.

Instead, she had lots more "whys" that I couldn't answer. Why didn't they rent to us (again, credit and rental history and probably six other better qualified applicants)? Why did they turn us down for rental history (call your former property management company)? Why did they think we wouldn't be good renters?

There were also a lot of "do you think" type questions: "Do you think they only want to rent to people without pets/who are Mormon/are willing to sign a six year lease/raise water buffalo/are secretly zombies? No. I think the owner wants to rent it out to folks with better credit and probably better rental history. However, what I really told her was I wasn't going to speculate and she needed to move on. Because they aren't getting this place.