Occupancy loads are a legitimate reason to reject someone, but 3 people in 2 bedrooms is not unreasonable.I for sure wouldn't have handled it like he did.

I spoke with the old owner - said his daughter had a cat but she was working and living 40 min away when they upgraded carpet so the cat has only been home for weekends.I'll remove the carpet but only if this is legitimate and not a ploy. 

Nothing can be considered legitimate as far as tenants are concerned and it always comes back to harm the landlord.

Those claims don't succeed very often, because there is a presumption that an LLC is legitimate, and the courts don't disregard the presumption lightly.  

Fully legitimate and no grounds to dispute.

If its a legitimate business, you should go for it.

A legitimate answer. 

They should be dealing with her and they should have a method to filter out legitimate requests.

If you find that an increase is legitimate, and you've considered your vacancy costs and can get through them without creating too much of a hardship, then by all means do it.

If they didn't - and weren't legitimately stuck in traffic - I'd deny them.