I'd love to be able to grab these people who do these things, sit them down in a nice sterile nondescript room far away from their support structures that give them confidence to do or say stupid things without someone correcting them, and just ask them, in simple terms, why they believe their actions are appropriate, and try to give them an example of a thing they can do instead, that would be the smart thing to do from both financial AND pr point of view.

For this, the people who contacted the tenant. "why do you believe you should penalize the renter, and not the property owner who did the illegal thing?" and every time they start giving me some bullshit beurocratic answer, just treat them the way we would be treated. With hostility and contempt. "oh come on Derek, we both know that's a bullshit excuse. Come on Derek, I like you. I want to help you out here. I'm just looking for the truth."

Until finally someone cracks and admits they fucked up and we're too embarrassed to admit it so they would rather see someone's life get trashed than admit to an error that could potentially threaten their yearly review.

This may have gotten a little personal...