Trustable Landlords

Here's a suggestion. Found this out the hard way by going with a landlord/landlady mentioned in this thread.

Rented a property for a 4 digit figure (multiple weeks) from one on the 'trusted' landlords in this thread.

Paid my money... and waited...... and waited.....

Zero response.
No sign of my ownership on any of the properties
No IM, note or anything
No reply to IMs in SL, on this forum or on sluniverse forum.
No response from any of the 'lieutenants'

Naively thought since the landlord/landlady was mentioned positively in so many threads, i could trust them.
I IM'd a few of the existing renters to see. They confirmed my worst fears - tardy or not not responsive. etc.
I looked closer - at the landlords posting history, here, on their site/blog and on other forums.
All show a busy posting history that cut offs several months ago.
I can only assume that they lost interest in SL.
I'm not accusing them of being scammers... just being uninterested.

So - before you rent:
Don't rely on forum threads like this - do your own research.
Check out the properties and IM existing renters.
Check if the Landlords profile have any current activity.
If the hippovend poster shows them permanently offline every time you check, then think carefully.

Otherwise you could be out of pocket and still homeless.

I rent cheaply at Imrath Tir, which is a pretty medieval sim and can recommend my landlord Harald Pinion....coz he's a lord by jove don't you know )

I wholeheartedly second that!

Every time I see someone posting about problems with rental land, I keep feeling like I have found the perfect land baroness: Wildefire Walcott and her Desperation Isle Estates.
http://desperationisle.blogspot.com/
Active? Check
Responsive? Check
Low price? Check
She is even fun to talk to in general.

Well, "bureaucratic" I'll give you. That's about all.

Well, doing your own research is certainly good advice. I'd also suggest that it was a very bad move to pay a large sum without even IM'ing the landlord first. That's a very basic step; it's a test of their customer service responsiveness.

Hmmm... how long has it been? 24 to 48 hours? Or a coupla weeks?

Or it could be that you sent an IM? Most of us have our IM's overwhelmed nearly instantly, and don't get them. I personally have about 1/4 million microtransactions a year, so the odds of a landlord not seeing your payment can be pretty good.

Also, one of the landlords mentioned in this thread passed away recently; he was a very good man.

Send me a PM about this ~ I can probably help.

in my case because is cheaper for me rent than pay VAT

Seconded. I've had too much RL trouble to be in SL a great deal from pretty much when I started renting from her, but everything seems to keep going smoothly enough. Time zone differences mean I hardly ever see her online, but the few times I've needed to get in touch she's got back to me very quickly

I rented from Count Burks for a year and a half. He was online often, responded quickly to any problems or questions, and you can use PayPal.