An open question to the Law Society or any other related group

I was wondering if there was any group prepared to somehow neutrally handle disputes between tenants. I'm thinking of getting an island sim to residentially rent out in a month or two.

I want to have happy tenants and I feel ill-equipped to dispense 'justice'. I am just a regular guy, not any sort of counselor, mediator or saint.

In my perfect world, I do not ever wish to deal with tenant disputes. Reading the 'good landlord / bad landlord' posts made me a bit worried about being in a 'landlord' position at all. One mistake and I could ruin my business.


So... is there any group that can do fair, transparent arbitration? It would be worth something to me to be able to say 'if there's a problem, take it to group X and I'll execute their decision whatever it is'.

Perhaps members of that group could not rent from me, I don't know... or maybe some kind of random jury thing.

Justice by the pound, perhaps?

Desmond, the Law Society is carefully chartered to NOT provide neutral services, or to evaluate or recommend providers of such services. This is to maintain objectivity in our mission of evaluating processes of conflict resolution ... the ways it can get done, and identifying and analyzing examples found in SL.

There are providers of such services in SL, and a search in these forums on "dispute resolution" or "arbitration" or "Superior Court" will turn them up.

In RL, an agreement such as a lease or service contract often includes a clause providing for binding arbitration or non-binding mediation in the event of a dispute. This is often referred to generically as "Alternative Dispute Resolution" or "ADR" to distinguish it from resort to the law courts.

In most cases that I have seen, the process is specified but the choice of ADR providers is not. What may be provided for in the agreement is that in the event of a dispute, each party will appoint one representative within x days of being informed of a dispute, and those two will appoint a third. Those three then "hear" each party's presentation of their side of the story (often solely in the form of documents) and huddle to come up with a decision on which 2/3 of them can agree.

Sometimes, the agreement will specify a single person or organization to be the ADR provider, the decision maker. Or, they may provide for an ADR vendor to provide each party with a list of arbitrators on its "panel," from which each party selects so many that are acceptable to them. The ADR provider then picks one from the overlapping choices.

In most cases, the arbitrator or mediator is compensated for her time in reviewing documents or listening to the party's arguments and any study time necessary to reach a decision.

Typically, if the ADR is "binding arbitration," the agreement provides that either party may enter the decision of the arbitrator in the law court with jurisdiction. Under U.S. law, states and the federal government have statutes that provide such binding arbitration awards will be enforced and not re-tried except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

We know that LL won't get involved in such things, but one of the Law Society's pending "Challenges" is to explore ways of enforcing such awards in SL without LL's assistance and without changes in the SL operating system.

Sorry if this is more information than you were looking for.

Others' thoughts?

There is a group called SL Mediators that will provide mediation services in-world. They have a small desk at the notary, Nota Bene, in Thyris 14,178.

You can create contracts that contain mediation language (sample language available at the notary, in the SL Mediators Guide Book), and then sign them with the notary. Please see the SL Mediators Guide Book for all the details.

Feel free to contact me in-world, if you'd like more info...

SL Mediators is a group of individuals, each of whom has specialized experience applicable to the mediator role in particular types of disputes. To my knowledge no member of SL Mediators is willing to step into the type of personal dispute that can arise from misunderstandings between neighbors with different ideas of what 'should' be done on land one has rented.

One thing that might help to prevent some of the disputes in this category is a very detailed set of design guidelines for your sim. I assume that you will be providing tenants with complete premises (commercial or residential, same points apply), fully textured, no provision for customizing the structure. Be aware, however that some tenants may use their prim allotment to add decorative items that show on the exterior.

For example, picture one of your brick victorian houses with 'decorator touches' like neon pink drapes with the tenant avatar's face on them. : ) Perhaps the tenant is new in the game, and so are her friends who tell her her drapes are soooo cute, and she has no idea that her neighbor has the opposite impression. If the neighbor makes an ill-considered remark that contains the word 'ugly' you can imagine the time-wasting dispute that might ensue.

Hmm. I am still proceeding with my plan to rent a sim (and eventually sims) should it work out.

Yet I've had some rather sage personal advice given to me in-world with regard to mediation.

Insofar as people may know the mediators, or worst of all BE the mediator's alts themselves.

Furthermore, that I might suffer from perception problems unless I made every dispute and its facts public. I don't want to be in such a position; airing people's personal disputes is not my idea of a good thing.



It was very interesting to see how someone wrote up what good and bad landlords do in these forums.

I forgot who posted it, but I may simply try to stick to such a thing, and refer to it.

I would love to see such a blueprint endorsed by both landlords and tenants alike. I don't want to be a 'good' landlord by paying everyone's tier for free, for instance.

In first life, one of the biggest attractions of arbitration and mediation is that it is strictly private, unlike lawsuits, which are public.

As to those concerned about "perception problems" if you offer an option for private dispute resolution, its a trade off. You need to decide what the people with the dispute needing resolution want. I think that its their call. Unless the public has a "need to know," I favor one's right to privacy. And in the vast majority of disputes between individuals over tenancy issues, I have trouble seeing a "need to know" on the part of the general public.