I've been tossed out on my pixels!!

So....I log in and I find out that all my stuff has been returned everything including all the houses and stores on the land is gone! I paid a month in advance. Is my landlord responsibe to pay back the rent I paid? I'd like it back. I am not happy.

Sorry, but no. That money is gone. A similar thing happened to me early on, luckily my landlord did the right thing and returned the remaining rent. And before you ask,the Lindens will not get involved. That is the pitfall of renting.

In short, no he isn't, and LL will do nothing. One of the downsides of renting.

That said, most reputable landlords would have gave you a reason, and refunded your money. Try to IM him/her, find out just what happened.


Your stuff isn't gone, it should be in your lost and found folder, likely combined into one item(look for an icon that looks like many small blocks).

If the landlord had any decency he would pro-rate you a refund.

Of course that doesn't mean you will get one.

Two possibilities:

-he is broke and cant afford to pay you
*or*
-he has no decency


------------------------

Every time you "pay" someone in Second Life, any amount at all,

According to Linden Labs it is a GIFT.

Thus of course there is no requirement to pay you back.

One word: Buy

Buy your land on the mainland and pay tier to LL. I bought a nice 4096 plot w/ over 900 prims fairly cheap with reasonable looking/sized buildings on the neighbors lot.

No one can kick me off, no 'landlord' who can throw a hissy fit and kick me out. I can do what I want with my land without hassles. In the end its worth every penny I spent on it.

My suggestion would be to do the same. I am indeed sorry to hear about your loss however, but on a positive spin chalk it up to a leaning experience.

Hope things work out for you going forward.

i would ask for it, nicely, and only once. is it possible that they accidendally changed the settings of the land and everything was returned by mistake? try that route first.

if the never respond, or are rude, the answer is obvious and yuo've been had.

there are plenty pf landlords here in this forum that are trustworthy. once you figure this out, and must relocate, ask us about that.

good luck.

Well she sent out a group notice with the conversation she had with the parcel owner describing what happened. I don't know if she will do the stand up thing but alot of her renters were standing around the empty land discussing how we were all going to IM her to try to get our rent back.

It is possible it is a mistake. I had a new Estate Manager and while cleaning up after a tenant had left using the About Land, Objects, and Refreshing the list of all objects in the parcel she accidently clicked on the name above the one she should have, ie the new tenant, rather than the outgoing tenant, and returned all the objects that the new tenant had spent all day putting in place

I apologised profusely to the tenant for the mistake, and gave him a week's rent free as compensation. We are good friends now (try getting that on the mainland from a Linden!).

Rock

OK, let's just say there was no reason for this tossing out.
How is this not worst than griefing? You can AR someone if they orbit you or 'push' you around, but if they steal your money you're on your own? I'm just asking - have never ARed anyone.

There was nothing left on the land. Apparently there was a dispute concerning prim limits and the parcel owner sent everything back and evicted her. She was nice enough to send us the conversations so we at least had some idea of what happened. This leads me to beleive that she will do the right thing. At least I hope so.

Wait so you and the others were sub-sub-leasing?

That was a disaster waiting to happen. For every tier of 'owners' you got there are going to be a possible point of failure/issues. As this example shows all it takes is someone higher on the tier to pull the plug and everyone below said person falls like domino's.

Again wish you the best going forward. And BUY land next time around

I hope so.

And this is why I discourage people from just jumping into the land business without knowing more about land. If you don't understand prims and tier, you're gonna get screwed. And now this has screwed how many other people?

How terrible that a dispute over prims would result in a large number of people being displaced.

I still think you should AR the person.

And complain to customer service, i just know you wont get your money back.

It would be nice if LL knew its policy isn't exactly the greatest concept on earth.

Sides, it makes more sense than ARing someone for showing their nipples in a PG sim, for example.

When I started, Strauss, I was subletting. I liked having waterfront property so I rented on islands. I, however, understood prim limits and checked the covenants before making such arrangements. It was a good business, and can still be one IF you have a handle on the rules and don't have an unscrupulous island owner.

That is an IF. If you are quick, observant, and have some common sense, it should come easily and makes the hardest part managing the day to day stuff - teaching people how not to exceed their prim limits, how to install media, etc. I am not saying it can't be done, but if you have a hard time with the rules, you're in for a rude awakening one day.

37 more words: Or rent from a reputable landlord with a great reputation, preferably one with a lot of sims because that means they are more stable than most and have a lot to lose if they screw someone over.

Yeah. it was at least nice of her to share the convesation with her renters. I am not real educated on tiers and parcels so until I feel comfortable about that I am not going to buy my own land yet. It appears that the land owner took back the sim from my landlord and returned all the items to all the renters and to my landlord. There was this big conversation between my landlord and the land owner that ended in her getting evicted.

Owning land is easy. You just pay LL a lot of money every month.

You were actually sub-sub-leasing: The landlord was leasing from the owner who was leasing from LL (we land owners don't really own the land, since it's virtual and Linden Lab can boot us at any time). So the odds of something bad happening were high.

If I was looking to rent, I would follow this advice, but what for argument's sake, what exactly would the landlord lose? You can't AR them, can't talk about them on the forums (so he can't lose his reputation),etc. Of course, if he's reputable, it's less likely he will screw you over. How do you find out who's reputable if you don't know any renters?
Because I lurk here, in the forums, there are two I would trust just by their postings - but is there another way to find out who is reputable?
(I'm thinking of renting this year...)

Well i guess I know that now. i hope I do get my money back so I can set up home somewhere else...anyone know a good place to rent?

You can name and shame them on other forums, like SLUniverse. You are right, the landlord with a good reputation probably won't lose much if she screws someone over, but most with good reputations got them by NOT screwing people over.

To find out who the reputable landlords are, ask people who have been in the land biz for a long time for their list. I used to post my list here, but stopped because it invariably left someone out...the reality is there are a lot of good landlords out there.

I don't think it's fair to assume that all small landlords that sublet on islands are bound to fail. Having been one, it can be done. The risk is higher, yes, but it is not fair to the good landlords who have their stuff together to make that assumption.

That said, there are a lot of good places, but you have to do some research. Try the property rental classifieds, and pick something you like. Then go and look at who's renting with them, and see how long they've been there, ask about the service. If they have long term people who've been with them for months, that's a good sign.

You will never be screwed over by Sarah Nerd or Darien Caldwell, two established and savvy estate owners who deal with commercial rentals. I will stake my own reputation on that. More names from others should be coming shortly.

That's amazing to me. But knowing what we all know now, I really suspect you yourself wouldn't sub-sub-lease--especially not from somebody just getting started! Because, really, think of the layers of risk to which the end-renter is exposed, all for the privilege of paying multiple margins over tier. When it works out, it's only because people are trying a lot harder than one really has any reason to expect.

I'd look at the landowners profile, for signs of stability, and of not being an anonymous bot. If there are other tenants in the area, I'd ask them for their experience. above all, if I had a plot I liked,I'd give it a try, going for the minimum retall period. I lucked out. I found a good landlord through a friend's recommendation, and have a nice island plot, that I use far too little.

Thats still questionable and still a level of uncertainty. Good reputation or not unexpected things can still happen to said landlord and thus you. In the end your home is in his/her hands and thats a cloud I rather not have over my head 24/7

Sorry but in my eyes no landlord is worth the risk and I wouldn't rent my private home on such. Land for a commercial venture (mall) or hobby (a club) sure I can see the risk vs practical (you generally would need more land/prims then typical one could afford), but a private home or business you don't need a large area for, buying is certainly the way to go. Only way something to happen to it is if LL folds. You rent from another user, no guarantees at all and any day you could end up like the unfortunate OP here.