I think that THS brought the five applicant rule in, in a rather underhand way. I had no ide about it until looking in on the forums. I have just completed a house sit and the home owner had no idea that there was now a five applicant limit and had wondered why so few applicants. I only ended up with it, as the home owner contacted me, when looking through for suitable people, as none who had contacted her were any good, or had not wanted it after making initial enquiry etc.