Rental Scam?

I'm rather new, so whenever I run into trouble, I generally presume that the likely cause is error or ignorance on my part, and I don't let things bother me too much - I'll figure it out eventually, I think to myself.

However, I did encounter one situation which drove me batty for a few days, and that I have trouble attributing to my own newbness. I had decided to try and rent a place - partly so I'd have a place to change clothes at least. Anyway, so I found this nice set of decently-sized riverside cottage/cabin-looking things for rent. There was plenty enough space inside for me. The cabin had a small loft (no stairs, but who cares?) and a nifty clear/tint/blackout window feature. The rental notecard said "100 prims, plus cabin". I took this to mean that the cabin took up some of those prims, so in reality I only had "x" number of prims to play with - 50 or 60 or 70, whatever. I was fine with it - the rent was rather cheap (at $L250 - 300/wk, I forget exactly how much), so I didn't expect much more. So I pay the freaky floating cube and receive appropriate messages and so forth. I was all happy!

Oddly enough, when I tried I found that I couldn't rez anything in the cabin. That's nice. I deduced that maybe the owner had to give me building permissions, so I sent him an IM explaining the situation. I never heard a word back from him, or received anything at all - except for a Friend add request. Nothing by way of explanation. Whatever.

To top it off, every single day I logged into SL for the week of my lease, I got a message telling me that I was "over my 100-prim limit" - by ONE PRIM - and the message concluded by helpfully adding that "additional prims can be purchased at the rental office". I hadn't rezzed a single thing in this place (not that I could've, even if I wanted to), but I was a prim OVER the limit? I found it incredibly difficult to believe this cabin was 101 prims. But - it must've been, right?

I'm not one to assume ignorance on the part of someone who runs a functional (on paper, at least) rental business in SL, so I must've been doing something wrong. The only other possible conclusion I'm left with is that this fellow advertized a low price to attract tenants, knowing full well that in order to use the rental units at all, the tenants would basically be forced to pay more - by way of "buying additional prims".

Well screw that. I never visited the property again and let my lease lapse. Lesson learned, I guess. Next time I rent, I'm going to make sure I've actually talked with the owner - by IM if not in person - and cleared up a few things first.

So tell me, folks - is this a monster of my own creation? Or have people run into this kind of thing before?

Dakota - I'm sorry you ran into what certainly sounds like a SCAM to me. Keep in mind that here on the forums we hear a lot more about the negatives than we do about the posites. There are a LOT of good landlords out there that will help you. There are a lot of folks that give NEWBIES space to use for FREE for 90 days. IM me in world and I can help you.

My experience with renting shops is that you can't rez anything until you join a group have that group activated when you rez.
Did you accept the offer of friendship?

Before I get to the part I like best you can check by clicking on top where the name of the land is then clicking on the objects tab. It tells you all about the number of prims allowed, the prims in use and who they belong to.


Now, this is just another wonderful day in sl. Trust no one and always double check everything when spending money. The Convenant for housing and land helps although it doesn't guarantee anything when dealing with certain elements in sl. There are many unscrupulous indiviuals who'll sell their soul for a Linden. Spending money is always a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Unfortunately, it's all part of the process in sl.

If the landlord didn't respond to you then they should be ashamed - you went to them with a legitimate query.

My partner and I are in the rental business - Our notecard states that, in our case, the total prim count includes the house. We too have a message sent when the rentor is over their limit, however we do overlook a couple of prims, based on the fact the rental box itself takes up 1 already.

Also, in order to rez items the rentor needs to wear the relevant group tag the land comes under, however once rezzed, the items don't disappear once you stop wearing the group tag!

If that landlord is worth their salt they would've sent you the group invite and welcomed you either in person or by IM. For one thing I find we can answer a lot of questions straight away by spending a little 'TLC' time with a new rentor. Sorry to hear you've not had a good experience with a landlord, but we are not all the same, so good luck renting in the future Dakota.

1. You probably needed to be invited into the group in order to rez your items. It was wrong that you did not receive a group invitation, but they may have placed the onus on you to ask for it. What did the informational notecard, if you got one, say?

2. The prim overage may be prims from a previous tenant left behind on the parcel, and not yours. Was the place seemingly "furnished"? Some small objects are very elaborate and may take up more prims than you may think. I've seen 14-prim rosebuds. Champagne bottles and flutes, or candles can quickly add up.

3. I would contact the owner again in case it is a situation where they had to be offline for the week. People DO have to take care of real life. If that is unsuccessful, you would be justified in being angry.

4. Most landlords take very good care to make sure that new tenants are established and settled, but sometimes things slip through the cracks, especially if you have a large operation. Most of them would be willing to make it up to you, so I would advise giving it a chance.

Well certainly - I'm not too upset about it anymore, and I'm not buying a pitchfork and trying to get my money back. I would rather not have spent the money, but I didn't exactly go broke over the incident. Thank you for the tip about checking on the land information, I didn't know about that - I will use it in the future.

As I recall, the notecard basically outlined the terms of the lease $X/week, 100 prims (including the cabin, which again I didn't mind). It did not mention anything about any groups - although I understand the logic of having a tenant's group like that; it makes things quite easy I should think. Perhaps it's even the only way to do it effectively. At the time, it hadn't occurred to me. I will go back long enough to retrieve another note card so I can post it for you guys (minus specific information, of course).

I do understand that most landlords are not like this - I will try renting again soon, and I'm sure I'll find a good one.

Cristalle, I will not be contacting this person again. Since he sent me a friend invite subsequent to my query, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that he saw it - and the fact that he sent me the invite at all indicates at the very least that he was online. I did not accept the invite, as I hadn't met him, and I don't think adding the landlord as a friend should be some kind of requirement for rental, especially when you haven't met him/her. I don't feel comfortable giving a complete stranger a peek at my comings and goings. I also feel that if he had time to send a friend invite, he should've had time to send a group invite if there was a requisite group, either instead of or in addition to the friend invite.

The house was completely bare - nothing left over.

It doesn't sound like a scam so much as a lousy landlord. I would move on. Even if the landlord were to eventually get in touch with you to resolve things that lack of responsiveness doesn't bode well for proper service in the future. It's simply not acceptable for a landlord not to invite you to the group within 24 hours of payment of rent. Real life issues may come up but the landlord promised something that he simply did not deliver. If the landlord has any sense of decency he or she will return your money if you request it by notecard explaining that based on the lack of responsiveness on his or her part you don't feel you comfortable being a tenant and that since you got nothing you feel entitled to a refund.

In the future, you should not rent a place before contacting the landlord so you can ask as many questions as needed to feel comfortable about renting. Use the about land feature if the rental notecard does not give you information on who to contact with questions (although that does not bode well either if the rental card does not give out those details).

Btw - It can be mutually helpful to both landlord and tenant to be on each others friends list and usually more helpful to you as the tenant. You can get immediate help from your lanlord if you know he is online. If you don't feel comfortable about your landlord knowing when you are online you can uncheck that feature on your friends list.

I understand, Dakota.

But FYI, you control who sees your comings and goings, even if they are friends. Uncheck the can-see-me option and they will not be notified of your comings and goings. I don't require it, and I would prefer NOT to friend my tenants, but I don't decline the offer since it's just a faster way for them to find me.

You're right about the group invitation and addressing your question. If he was on, he should have at least tried to take care of it.

As for the prim situation....no idea. This is highly unusual, though.

Sounds to me like a scam. Also sounds like someone renting units who has no clue what they are doing. Either way I'd move on. Plenty of rentals out there need people.

Cristalle is right about the friends list. I've yet to have a landlord for personal or business who didn't add me to their list. I guess I could have declined but never saw any reason to.

Yet you felt comfortable giving him money. It does not sound like a scam to me, or even a lousy landlord.

A friend invite does not mean that you have to give anyone a peek at your comings and goings, or even that you have to be friends with the person. It does, however, facilitate easier communication.

Yes, it is possible that he should have been more responsive, but from your post you don't know if he really got your IM. IM's get capped all the time, especially for business owners.

He may have just offered friendship because he noticed you were renting, that is not unusual. Did you also send your request in a notecard form? I would do that in the future if I were you, because that way you will get a message "soandso has accepted your inventory offer." You will then have confirmation that they got your message.

As for the prim limits, there could have been something in the sky, or under the ground. Something as simple as someone losing their necklace under the ground can cause an overage on a small parcel.

The friendship offer from the landlord seems pretty standard to me.

Also, about the prim limit notice, I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but I've rented shop space before and gotten notices like that. I IM'd the landlord and they informed me that it was a problem they were having with their rental box system and to disregard the message. It never had any impact on my ability to rez things on the parcel, if my group tag was active, and I my personal experience was that this was a good landlord having a technical glitch.

Really can't offer an opinion on whether this was a scam or not, but it sounds like you have a positive attitude about SL and renting again. Good luck!

my experience was that i needed to join the group
but in addition
any objects i wanted to stay rezzed
(as in not disappear after a few minutes)
i had to give to the group

(hope i am saying that right)

Regarding the prim usage notice, a lot of prim counters are buggy. The one in the condo I used to rent often read my prim usage as zero when it was more like 250. On other occasions it read all the prims on the sim and said I was using tens of thousands of prims and sent me a excess prim usage notice. I would the promptly IM my landlord and complain that I clearly had an SL cockroach infestation in my apartment and demand he clear it up right away.

That may be jumping the gun. Its JUST as possible its a simple matter of a poorly run/managed rental outfit.

Either way its prob best to cut you losses IMO.

You don't necessarily have to "give" or deed them to the group, but they must be "set to group".

This can usually be easily accomplished by having the group tag active while rezzing the objects.

In exchange for a promised service. I've thrown buckets of money at all manner of vendors and designers of items and clothing also, and haven't had to or wanted to or felt compelled by propriety to add them to my friends list. Difference is, with the vendors, something actually took place as a result of the money transfer - to whit, something was added to my inventory. When I gave money to this rental box, I was not able to do anything more with this cabin than walk around in it - which, I hasten to add, I was perfectly able to do before paying. When it really comes down to it, I paid L300 for the privilege of being nagged about prim limits for a week.



I was able to IM this fellow by using the Search feature to find his profile (which does indicate whether or not he's online). I wouldn't have had trouble going that route again whenever I needed something. I don't see much of a point in letting someone add me to their friends list if I'm going to hide my online status from them anyway - that's pretty much the definition of "bad faith". Not being on their friends list hasn't stopped a few people I know and talk to often from finding me and sending me IMs.



Perhaps he didn't get my message. Yet, the same thing still applies - if he "noticed" I'd just paid his rental box and thus sent me a friend invite, there's still no reason he couldn't have sent the group invite as well, or an IM, or even his own notecard explaining "Look, you've got to join this group...." Perhaps with a little more context, I might've even been willing to accept the friend invite - but it was sent in a complete vaccuum of information.



As the landowner, it's his job to take care of that. I asked and didn't get a response. Sending a notecard is a good idea - I will do that next time.

thank you!

that is what i was trying to say
lol a little at me

I agree. Communication is a 2 way street. You seem to feel completely comfortable with writing, so I suggest it would be a great idea to send the landlord the same information you have posted here in the forum (that you feel he scammed you) in a notecard.

He may be happy to make it good if he hasn't realized you had a problem.

Not that it really matters what happned; this particular establishment is best avoided anyway, but I would agree that this is more likely a badly run business rather than a scam. If it's a scam, it's the dumbest scam going, since he would make a lot more money keeping his customers rather than guaranteeing that they leave after 1 payment. The toughest obstacle in this business is re-filling the spaces as people move on, buy land, etc.

It's not always necessary to join the group before being able to build. I turn build on so that tenants can move in right away. Then I restrict build to the group after I have logged in and gotten the tenant set up. So far the benefits of this have far outweighed the occasional abuses I've encountered.

It's a bad idea to assume that just because they sent you a friend invite, they got your IM. While it's possible that's true, it's just as possible they simply saw the payment from you on their trasactions and wanted to contact you. However, they could have sent a group invite and an IM as easily as friendship offer. So I agree they didn't do nearly all they could have done.

I don't usually offer friendship to tenants, but if they offer I graciously accept. I do require they join my Estate group, simply for the convenience of getting messages out and to track them down if I need to. I would agree with the consensus, you just fell in with a rather unmotivated landlord. I hope you find better next time.

If the OP's IMs get capped, it's very possible that they missed all the things they are complaining about not getting. Group invites and inventory deliveries go away if the IMs are already capped.

Just wanted to note that there is a method of turning off the ability of anyone but friends seeing that you are on-line. It is in preferences. I have never used that feature, so I do not actually recall the exact terminology, but I know that feature is there.

Sounds to me like the configuration notecard in the box was just not correct and it was incorrectly counting prims. It can happen,especially if you are new to rentals. They have several options,you can count tenants,group or all prims. tenant prims never works right unless you have a group deed prim plugin or if the actual owner is on the land.(Im speaking of hippo boxes) However though,the landlord should have tested these boxes out before renting them.

I am also a landlord and I agree with Rioko above that it sounds like the configuration notecard within the rental box was badly set so that the rental box counted the prims on the land the wrong way.

It's also very likely that the landlord never received your IM. I have noted in my own notecards that it's important that the tenants send me a notecard with their queries instead of an IM as the IM's get capped when you get too many. Only the rental boxes themselves send so many IM's to me that hardly any other messages can come through. I even have the request of preferably sending me a notecard instead of an IM in my profile as I think it's so important.

I think there's nothing wrong with offering friendship to a tenant even if I don't usually do it myself. I make sure that they know how to reach me anyway.

A group membership is used to tell prims set to group from prims from just any visitor on the land. It's used to prevent prim littering by people who don't rent on the land and make sure that only prims placed on the land by the tenants themselves and thus the group, remain on the land. All other prims are sent back to their respective inventories by auto return. So you could say that a group membership is used for authorization of the right to place prims on the land.

You're welcome to rent from us if you want and we'll make sure that you get all info you need so that you feel secure and well taken care of.