Residents Rights When your Estate Agent gets Banned

Yes would you believe it bitten twice in a month.I did my research and found what looked like a reputable agent and did a deal.2 days ago we were informed that our agent has been banned from sl and his entire group of residents now face eviction by LL.We have formed a group and commenced a fight for justice and better rights for those who have had thier land taken back by LL just because their agent breaks the rules.
RAB land owners survivors group is our group and we will not lie down and be pushed off our land quietly. The LL rules are clear and we have no rights and i for one believe this is wrong.We pay our rents and most of us own a buisiness.Our problem is we rent homesteads and cannot afford to buy a full sim which is a must if you want to buy a homestead.All we want is to be able to have our homesteads and own them outright thus cutting out the middle man who seems hell bent on screwing residents for their own gain.

If it is group owned land, then you just lose their tier. If it is owned by and individual? Tough luck. Like a private company, the edit right are lost / the company is dead.

Your group will just have to contribute enough in L$ or tier to cover it when you buy it back after it goes vacant.

the OP mentioned homesteads so even if the land is deeded to group tier does not matter at all, the home steads are payed and in name of the banned agent so when the tier for the homestead runs out it is gone.

Still if homesteads where open to buy from LL by anyone there is a increased change of fly by night estates popping up resulting in more renters losing land because of scammers and mismanagment. there are pros and cons for everything.

My mistake. I am not that intimate with property and trading in SL.

Were they really banned or did they just dump the sim and do a runner with the cash?
Very few people would do something that risked a few thousand dollars of sim ownership, maybe the rent was seemed really cheap for a good reason, the owner may have just transfered the sim to another anoymous disposable alt too.

Who informed the tenants? I'd be surprised if LL informed them. See what Tegg wrote.

Then ask the nice and helpful people here who the GOOD landpersons are! I only rent a little spot, nothing as big as a homestead, but the advice I got right here in the forum was very sound.

Sucky thing that it should have happened to you twice - maybe it'll be 3rd time lucky? I hope so

I wish you a lot of luck, though it's highly unlikely LL will listen, given that this basically a dispute between residents.

I do wish they'd go ahead and break the ability to own homesteads from those who have private islands. It'd allow those that aren't ready for a full island, but want the privacy not provided for on a mainland.

If they did that, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. I would release my mainland holdings except for my 512 lot and the tier difference I am spending I would then apply it towards the homestead tier.

If they did that, wouldn't it cause the mainland to become far more deserted than it is now and LL to make a lot less tier money?

ETA:
So many people have suggested it in front of the right Lindens that there has to be a very compelling reason why they don't do it, and I'll guess that the reason is that it would lower LL's incone enormously.

I suspect you are correct, Phil.

Randie, would you go over to sluniverse or secondcitizen or something and say who it was you were dealing with, and what happened?


Occasionally I get jokers who 'sell' land in my regions too... it goes something like this.

1. Random new person sees an area and likes it
2. Slick talking stranger says they own it, and 'sells' it to them
3. Random new person comes to me and says they just 'bought' a homestead in my area
4. I ask: what are you talking about!? It's not even for sale!

It's a bit like selling the Brooklyn bridge. What amazes me, is that the land is clearly in a tenant's name, and that tenant is never contacted!

I had one fellow come up to me and say he 'bought' Caledon Strathspey (a homestead) and demanded that I transfer it over to him. Amazing... I asked who he thought he bought it from, and that's when he realised that he had been scammed. Even so, there was this sort of expectation that I 'make it right' for him... but if someone was stupid enough to 'buy' land from a traveling con man without doing even the most basic checks, are you going to give them money?

This sort of nonsense isn't just messing with you guys, it's been messing with land barons too, for ages.

That's the only thing I can think of. It'd have to lower LL's income by a larger amount than being stuck sitting on mainland property would cause.

As for the mainland being more deserted? Well, they could just stop auctioning off parcels in sims that are 75% Governor Linden owned and offer the remaining 25% on the sim a change to another sim. If the remaining accept, just close down the sim.

So, LL must be making more money off the mainland sims than we expected. Or the overhead for homesteads is such that it's not cost effective.

It would kill both the mainland and estate land markets.

Think about it. Which would you rather have...1/4 sim that you share with other people, and maybe pay rent to a third party for...or a whole sim to yourself, same prim allowance, and pay tier directly to LL, for just a little bit more per month?

The only people who would still want full performance sims would be club and store owners (and not all of those), and perhaps people who like to build very prim-intensive environments like forests or cities.

I don't think making small islands available would kill mainland purchases - for one thing it's already dead. For another thing it's a different market.

But that's just me.

If LL make Homesteads available to anyone they are going to seriously p*ss off some of their biggest customers.

Hmm, hang on that sounds just like the kind of thing that Labs would do.


Disclaimer: I'm biased, I rent out homesteads, but I'm only a minor player in this area compared to the big guys.

I think this post has lost its way a wee bit it was not about being able to buy Homesteads but the fact that if we rent and the landlord goes under or does wrong and gets banned the tennant is screwed and LL takes the land back and the tennant is the only one who suffers and yes you guessed it the innocent party pays the highest price.LL will refuse to help LL will refuse to give details on the wayward landlord and LL will refuse to help.
In our case there are over 100 affected sims involved and when you do the math LL will suffer a great loss of income.It is this point that actually made them listen LOSS OF INCOME.Funny i thought these games were about people.We have a gaurdian angel working for us and he is going out of his way to help us and we all owe him a great deal for this and upon the conclusion of this issue win loose or draw i will name this kind and great human being.

We understood, we've heard about this issue a lot in here before, so it's nothing new to discuss for some of us - also, thread topics often (usually) go into other, side topics.

Hope you get it worked out.

Most landlord owning a hundred sims aren't going to go around doing stuff that risks getting them banned from SL and I wouldn't think LL would take the decision to ban an individual paying them monthly for 100 sims lightly without a good reason. Perhaps they just weren't paying, it's pretty easy for anyone to use a disposable alt to get their own disposable alt banned to make themself look like a victim. How many years has this landlord been in business? Are the other tennats really other tennats or just disposable alts?

You did what you considered 'good research' and that is commendable. However, good research would have included coming to this forum and asking for recommendations.

Sorry you were burned, you have no option but to move. Your "fight for justice" means very little to LL - what is it you expect LL to do? Leave the sim there?

Next time you are landlord hunting, post a message.

Oh, THAT one. Yes, that was a big business failure, and one that most people would never have expected.

Randie, I'm sorry you got caught in this, and I'm glad you have a "guardian angel" helping out. But look, this sort of thing happens ALL the time, in RL and in SL both.

A couple of years ago, there was an "investment bank" in SL called Ginko. They paid astronomical rates of return on deposits, and people flocked to give them their money.

Then, one night, the person behind Ginko struck his tent and faded away into the night, with over $500,000 (dollars, not lindens). Thousands of people lost money, some of them lost LOTS of money.

Con artists and scammers and simply people who make bad business decisions...and their customers take it in the shorts.

It's life. Don't take it too seriously, nobody gets out of it alive.

Which one was this? Anyone have a link to a news article or anything?

No Idea who, but off to see what I can find.

Nosey Parkers wants to know!

Yes, it does happen. Usually once burned you learn to be more careful.

I know one popular business in SL where the owner has a cycle of complaining and saying he is going to walk away. He says he will sale his business at some largish sum. The people who hang out there and love it make groups and collect money to buy it and manage to come up with a nice down payment. At which time the owner decides he just can't sale it... makes promises to repay and even makes a couple small payments. Invariably he never finishes paying the money back.... those who are totally disgusted leave and quit visiting there..and then six months.. a year later.. he starts the whole cycle again.

I saw this cycle happen three times and got caught up in it once before I wised up and walked off.

Lots of way to loose money in SL. I follow the rule not to sink in more then I am comfortable loosing. Even if it is an investment you expect to recoup, you may find yourself empty handed and have to be prepared for that.

The reason LL do not help the tenets is simple you are nothing to do with them. They do not get any money from you for the land/home you rent. LLs dealings are with the land owner who you paid money to. You agreement is with person X LL has no agreement with you, I can understand how hurt you feel but try to see it from their side they have a business to run person X owes or has not paid the money to LL so LL is taking back what is theirs your issue is person X. As others have said person X may still be about in SL but under another name happily spending the money you have given him/her.