Post-script: Sometimes, if the person says no to a verbal request, they might follow it up like this: "No because of liability concerns". Or "no because we feel like you could find something valuable", or "no because of holes".
And your knee-jerk reaction *might* be to think "gee if I just had a written contract addressing all those issues, then this person would say "yes". But don't be so sure. Because often time, whenever you hear those old song & dances, it's NOT because they're concerned about those things. Those are just the "go to" reasons, to politely say 'no'. The real reason is, they just don't want to be bothered. So no amount of remedying those things, or showing up at their door with contracts, will cause them to change. Those were just the "go-to" reasons.