@Web Annacius - I’m not a lawyer and I don’t pretend to be one, but in almost all circumstances you’re allowed to preserve your property.

They may be useful in a carrot/stick approach but they are harder to uphold if challenged in court.In your circumstance, I would go through the property very carefully to ensure there is no hidden damage from the pet, and I would be less charitable when I found real damage.

While this has never happened to me I have researched it quite a bit because I am petty in certain circumstances and would try to collect. 

The facts and circumstances are going to be very important for the answer to this questions. 

It is not just "knowing", but also what a reasonable party would inquire about (given the totality of the circumstances, what would a reasonable person do when presented with indicators of __?). 

I am on the opposite side of @Collin H. when talking about a bubble, to me it's just the beginning of a spike in inflation that based on interest rates and money added to circulation can't slow down until the FED winds back on not only interest rates but QE and they aren't likely to try both at once so we are looking at another 3-5 years of craziness in housing and stocks, but who knows maybe there is some other unforeseen circumstance that Government can try and stimulus it's way out of.

Explain that that grace period is for unforeseen circumstances.

Typically banks will look for 2 years of employment history but given your circumstances they may be flexible enough after a few months of you working at your new job.

@Andrew Roberts I don’t think wanting a 6 month lease is always a red flag (although it could be depending on the circumstance).

@Gary Dezoysa I believe that there are some circumstances when a sale must be approved by the probate court, but that's a very limited number of sales.