The great land grab

I bought my first piece of land on a private sim in December (07)and loved it. Three weeks later I bought an additional lot and combined them giving me a 8100+ piece of land with my home and pool - I invested 62,000L in the land and more for my home and content - I was contributing to the SL economy LOL

Today I get a note card telling me to vacate my land immediately Quote:
To all residents on Vanity Beach (southern half)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hello,

I am V@@@@@ B#####O, CEO of XXXXXXXXXE.

As you might have noticed I bought Vanity Beach ( former Tropical Sands West ) on Monday what means that I am the new Estate Owner.

I bought this sim to expand my rental company for what I need more land. I do not offer land for sale on my Estate, not now and not in the future.

As you might know all land contracts on private estate come to an end with the change of the Estate Owner. (You might feel this is not ok but in fact the same would happen if Linden Lab would close the sim).

Please remove all objects on land until Wednesday 23th 10:00 AM PST. Remaining objects will be returned into your inventory and you will find them in your lost-and-found-folder after that (sometimes with delay).

Please do also understand that no refunds can be given by me and that i do not buy land that I already own.

Please notice that I have given a new Covenant to Vanity Beach. Please respect it while you are here.

Thanks for your understanding.


XXXXXXXX

So basically my land was stolen out from under me - talk about being disillusioned! This may drive my wife and I to buy our own sim - I cannot believe they can get away with this and I lose over $200.00. I wrote the previous estate owner as he had 7 sims and suggested he offer a similar piece of land to displaced residents (his tier payments would keep rolling in) and the residents could recoup some of their investment - but he is ignoring me - GREAT WAY TO DO BUSINESS!

I want to tell everyone that pays him a tier to WATCH OUT - because you could be next!

How disappointing!

Unfortunately, it happens all too often. Apart from asking nicely, there's nothing you can do.

You should also remove the all names from your post, it's against the forum rules.

I would say I was shaking my head in disbelief, but I used to be your neighbor to the west and this doesn't surprise me in the least. This is one reason my policy other than Linden land is rent and rent only. Rather pay an extra 10US a month in tier for rent only land than deal with a financial slap like that. Sorry to hear about your loss.

edited to add--I was on good terms with the previous SIM owner. I will send him an IM if you wish. He was very fair with me when "that woman" dropped a new SIM at my ocean front view, and offered an unblocked lot to make up for it.

Both the Buyer and the Seller of that SIM sound as bad as each other!

The Seller should have settle all his liabilities by refunding all Tier paying residents a proportion of proceeds based on their % land holdings on that SIM.
He's effectively collected funds twice for the same piece of land!

As Butch said, you're not suppose to name names here. Someone is gonna jump on me for it for saying so, though. We have heard her name mentioned here before, btw.

It unfortunately is one of those things that happens. Linden Labs will not become involved in resident disputes. In the future you may want to ask around before buying land from a private estate owner. There are many reputable ones. Remember, though, even though the most reputable ones could run into financial troubles and need to sell their sim or get hit by a bus tomorrow.

The safest thing to do is buy mainland. Then you "own" directly from Linden Labs. Though you really never own land in SL. I wish they'd do away with that term. The problem with mainland is there is no zoning. That beautiful area you live in today could be the ugliest area in SL next week.

It's up to you to decide what's more important to you.

There is a Land Group that you may want to join in world. Search Out SL Land Answers Unlimited. It's free to join and was created by land owners and lessors so that buyers such as yourself can ask questions without pressure.

That is the No1 pitfall of buying/renting from a private estate owner. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done.

I don't know whether this problem is getting worse, or if more people are just coming to the forums to post about it. It used to get posted every week; now it's about every 2 days. It's always by someone with a 1-digit post count, which is not a criticism; just an observation.

This is my canned summation of advice on the topic, which I realize is too late after it's happened to you. Sorry it did.

"Estate land that you purchase can be reclaimed at any time by the estate owner, or could disappear if the Estate owner does not pay their tier. Linden Lab does not intervene in such events. Research any prospective landlord carefully, and perhaps ask current tenants their opinion. Asking for names in the forums generally invites an advertising frenzy, and will not give you an exhaustive list of all responsible estate owners. If you are not sure that you can trust your estate owner, then do not outlay any sum of money that you cannot afford to lose."

Thought i'd take some of the heat of you, Bradley. I haven't been abused in the forums, yet

Avion,

Every new resident should be required to read that out loud 10 times before they are allowed to leave Orientation Island.

Oh just wait. We'll get to you.

*wrings hands.

Every private sim owner should have to give that out to a prospective buyer if you ask me.

I have had the same thoughts Avion.




That's a great idea, however there are far too many scandalous estate owners that would not. We all know the good ones as they stand out like a sore thumb(in a good way).

More people are joining in general I guess. We are seeing more new people posting , they have just arrived and are looking to buy land or start businesses, so we will see a higher percentage here posting about situations like this.

If there is a New look Forum, hopefully a comprehensive land sticky will be in a prominent place.

Even though Storm only has 2 posts, the guy is legit. I lived right next door to him although I don't think he knew of my existence because I sold and moved a little after he got his bigger lot.

I don't think there will ever be a restriction on how long a resident must be in SL before they can have land, and probably never should be one, but it does seem there should be some requirement to understand that they do know what they are getting into. I normally don't believe in hand holding, but just the fact that LL blatantly uses the term "Land Sales" encourages deception in my opinion.

Good idea, Brenda. A perfect place for it would be the big box that pops up when you try to buy land. That box is too rediculously similar when buying mainland or estate land.

It sure warns the hell out of you when you're about to increase your tier. There's no reason it shouldn't warn a person about this horrendous problem.

And thanks Bradly and Theo for your inputs too. Sometimes I think my posts are invisible.

Very very good suggestion... My God, I really feel for the OP on this one. I also agree with everyone else who has said... either buy land directly from LL or rent. I don't think that I would ever 'buy' land from a private estate...I just wouldn't be able to relax in it, knowing that no matter how much money I'd paid, I could still get 'kicked' out at any moment...

There shouldn't be a requirement per se, just that a good primer on it should at least be readily available BEFORE someone decides to *Euphemism for buying land* I agree with you. The first time I saw that Buy Land hype I said "yeah, right"

Storm, your main problem is with the previous owner of your sim... basically he sold you land and then sold it again to the new sim owner. In my book that is dishonest. Try dealing with him directly and asking for a refund.

Good luck...

.d

P.S. The lindens could fix this by not allowing estate land to be sold.. or if they do by not transferring a sim until all parcel owners have agreed to the transfer. The only way for a sim owner that sells parcels to re-posses land would be failure to pay tier.

Pocket, the problem is: I don't like telling people "only buy mainland", because good estate owners shouldn't have to halt their business operations just because some estate owners are dishonest, or (more often the case I suspect) can't hack it and have to give up.

Prospective buyers or renters should just be aware that there is some risk involved, and they should really research their estate owner before they trust them with their money.

I did "buy" fom a Private Owner, after living on the mainland for a while, and I am lucky in that he so far has been on the level. He even raised our prim multiplier today. to celebrate opening a new island. He has a good reputation, was recommended by several people and so far has been fantastic. There is the chance it can go poof tomorrow, yes, but all money I invest in SL is money that is expendable anyway.

Unfortunately the culture early last year or say late 2006 was very much about Buying (leasing) lands and not rentals...this was when everything was booming, land was scarce, the casinos were thriving, growth in new accounts etc etc .Lots of us have lost value on those purchases. The money I paid for Land in Sept 06, i would not hope to get back now....if i recieve 75% I'd be doing well.

The culture regarding lands has very much changed...it's more about Rentals and there's umpteen reasons for the turnaround. That sentiment will only increase as we witness more rip-offs each week as more SIM's get dumped onto the market (read RL Recession).

Oh I completely understand that there are very decent estate owners out there that deal with their customers in a honest and upright way, and they should be wholeheartedly congratulated for it too. For me though, it would be too much of an uncertainty and I probably don't know enough about the whole process to make a judgement on everyone based on just one. What I really don't understand is the difference between 'renting' and 'buying' privately owned land.... When I think about it I can't really differentiate between the two all that much... but of course that could be because I'm Irish

Ahnse Chung would be stuffed then. As far as i'm aware she is phasing out rentals on Dreamland in favour of buying plots

The Lindens should be doing something about this issue. They banned banks for a good reason, they were just ripoffs. And this is the same thing.

I guess you could sue in small claims court.