Rentland

We are on the border of Rentland, negotiating for permission to enter. There is still the assumption of guilt on the part of anyone applying to rent, that I remember from pre-home-ownership days. You are (or are applying to be) a tenant, therefore you are likely to be a criminal and a credit risk.

As part of our application for one agent, we have been asked for five references EACH (including one from our parents/guardians - we are both over 35). Also 100 points of ID proof. Also - all applicants are asked to present at the Tasmanian Collection Service office, pay $13 each, and obtain a statement of their credit report.

We are hoping to reason with them, on the basis that we own our own home outright, and we have lived in the one spot for five years, and we have lovely smiles. I have no intention of paying for a blank credit report, and I will provide three references but five is crazy.

We saw two nice enough houses in Sandy Bay today. We will apply for both. We saw one at Mt Nelson that might be kind of OK, but I couldn't concentrate on it. The current tenant, who was asked to be, and appeared to be absent, suddenly came halfway down the stairs while we were all standing in his kitchen. We only saw his socks and heard his half-asleep confused and heavily accented ramblings. We had a look around the gorund floor at least. One unused bedroom had a bag full of Do You Really Know Jesus DVDs spilling across the floor.