Getting it in writing is never a problem, but getting the leasing agent to shut up and let you read it, ah... well that's a different story. They just keep talking and trying to "explain" what it says hoping you won't actually read it. That was my point. And that has happened to me nearly every time I've had to sign a contract of any sort - leases, my mortgage paperwork, car rental contracts, whatever. I finally learned to *nicely* tell them to hush "while I read awhile." Cruises are my favorite. They don't send you the contract until you've already booked and paid, and you're leaving in a very short period of time (meaning it's already non-refundable). Of course, if you're savvy, you know you can look at the contract at any time by simply asking to see it. But they don't just hand it over until it's too late to get out of it. I just love how the snake-oil salesmen of the world just love to try to trap us into their contracts by trying to keep us from seeing the fine print. It's become sort-of my mission in life to rail about it as much as possible.

Exactly my point. Usually, but it is possible to get past the writing to the verbal stuff, and I suspect for the exact reasons I stated above. Sometimes our lawmakers aren't as dumb as we make them out to be, and sometimes they really do listen when we write them letters.