Another thread on renting

So I have a parcel I'm going to soon rent to a person. I don't *think* I need a big, full-featured rental box thing, but I'm not sure. What are some of the best practices anyone knows for setting up a single parcel to rent to a single person?

Private Island or Mainland?

from what i've read from Marianne, i feel pretty confident in saying "mainland".


is this just "any person" or is it a person you know and trust? if it's someone you know, then the entire "good faith" arrangement should be just fine.

Good guess



Yup, know and trust.

well, there you go, then... just don't let it come between that (which could happen just as easily if you were using a payment box).



but be sure to ask your parents if it's ok, first...

if it isn't already group land, you may want to make it so, even if it is just the two of you in the group. it will make it easier with the permissions.

No need for rental boxes. I had a dozen tenants and they just paid me directly when the rent was due. The beauty about SL is eviction is instantaneous if it's needed. Plus no need for security deposits.

Agreed.

I use a self scripted rental box (one that I would be happy to give you a copy of Mari - just ask). It does not have all the bells and whistles of advanced ones but it is low lag and useful to keep things straight and give the renter some autonomy. I give refunds on unused time and the script handles that too. The renter gets a HUD that tells them of their prim usage or they can look at the rental box (updates less often to prevent lag).

All my land is group land, and the land group is invite only. They pay the box and at some point afterwards I manually invite them, usually when they drop me an IM (all in the instructions they get when paying the box). If they decide to leave, I remove them from the group as soon as I can.
I give a few days grace period for overdue fees (again the rental box handles that) and after that the rental is terminated unless by prior arrangement. I give ban and eject capability but have a set of terms and conditions for the plot. I don't rent by land size, but L$/prim and rent extra prims when available upon request. The rental box also handles this.
The box will hassle the renter when they go over their prim allowance also - as well as informing me. It also tells me when they return to being within their allowance again.

I allow one partner/sub/slave/friend/whatever to live with the renter for no extra charge.
All my rentals come with dwellings on them and they do not count towards the prim allowance. I allow a skybox at 500m or above that will count against their allowance. I provide a radio upon request.

All my land is open build/object entry etc. but autoreturn is set to 1 min on the rental parcels and to 10 mins on the common land. I have absolutely no problems using this approach.
Sometimes I might have to return renter's prims either on their parcels on in the common areas but it is rare.

Mari, I am a very small rental business - currently 16 units on 3 sims so my approaches would work for you whilst the practices of the large businesses may not scale for you.

I would say one of the most important things to do is to write a thorough set of Terms and Conditions. Make this available before renting and again afterwards.

The decisions I have made for me reflect that I want to foster a community and not just isolated rentals so you might want to tweak things if you have a single rental property and/or don't want a community - the open land thing is one of those decisions.

I have a "lodger", a friend who has his home rezzed on my land. No formal agreement, he just gives me some L$ when tier is due. He uses about 10% of my prims and gives me about 10% of my tier, works for us, no one takes advantage, just done on trust.

You can use the notes section of their profile to track payments. Something like

"Last pmt 21Aug09 400L$" It's when you have multiple tenants that it gets to be a pain keeping track, and you want to automate it. For one you can just make it simple without a box.

You say "pay me L$xxxx by the NNth day of the month, each month" and they say "OK" and they do it. There's no need for any special tools until you're renting enough stuff that you can't keep track of it.

As far as the land itself goes, easiest is to create a group containing the two of you, with you as owner and appropriate land controls turned on for her role, and deed the land to that group.

I agree with Argent and the above posters, for up to a few renters that you can trust, the rental box isn't necessary.

I would set a "discrete" rental pay-box that does not show the rental details in public.

It IS helpful for both sides and a pain in the ass if you don't have it. Even if U have only one single parcel.

Okay, very cool. An I'd love to see that box, Gabriele, if you wanna share.

For now, we're being somewhat informal, which seems to be working.