question about group rights/ownership

I own a group with another person, and together we own a bunch of land and run a mall and club. Anyway, I haven't seen this person on SL for almost two weeks now, and I'm concerned that I've been abandoned (whether innocently or maliciously). Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has advice about how to handle the situation: after a certain amount of time, if he/she hasn't logged on, can I assume ownership of all the group property? This isn't something I would want to do, but I believe I'll have to come up with all the tier money (estate land) to avoid the confiscation of the land by the estate owner. Thanks for any suggestions/insight!

well you have a few options

one option you do not have, is removing the other person from the group if they are also in the owner role


now one option you have (I assume land is owned by the group) is sell the land to yourself, then buy it back and deed it to a new group that only you are the owner of (I would not do this unless I was 100% sure the other person is not returning)

or if this is on a private sim, (which it sounds like) you could contact the sim owner, and let them know the situation and see if they can help you set it to a new group

putting it to a new group would be the only way to get the land totally to you

when you return group owned items they return to the last resident owner
so items might be a bit of a problem if you have things out there that you both owned (a mix)

without knowing your complete situation it is hard to know what would be the best option

good luck and hopefully it is just the holidays that has your business partner mia

yes, the group land is in a private sim. i have contacted some of the people from the estate seeking their help, so hopefully that will give me the appropriate direction. i'm almost certain that the other owner means well and no harm, but as tier day approaches and she's not around, i want to make sure i'm protected. perhaps the estate governor can deed the land to a new group, and once the other owner shows up again i can simply deed the land back to the group that owns the land now. another problem i forgot to mention is that only the creator of the group can pay the tier, according to the covenant, and so i'm not even able to pay the tier myself. any further insight/advice/information i'd appreciate very much

then I would definitely talk to the owners of the sim about getting it into your own tier and explaining why and that you wish to comply with their terms as well

oh and when (if) you do transfer the land to a new group, first make sure nothing is set to auto return and all build options are turned on so things do not get returned to you
then also make sure to have at least 2 ppl in the new group (you and an alt is a perfect example, and if you use an alt, give the alt ownership of the group too)
being the alt is you, I am sure you can trust it LOL

and of course any items that are deeded to the old group will have to be removed and then replaced and deeded to the new group)

group land with deeded items can be a pain

good luck

Until I read that, I was going to suggest simply paying the tier for now, and straighten up with your partner when she gets back, because "almost 2 weeks" is a bit short to assume that a person has gone for good. It would amount to the same thing as if she doesn't come back and you have to change ownerships.

I'm assuming that the covenant doesn't say that the group creator must pay the tier, and that it says that the land owner must pay it. There are 2 good ways to go that readily spring to mind. One is to ask the estate owner to allow you to pay the tier until she comes back, or until you sort the land ownership out, as was mentioned above. The other is to take ownership of the land as was also mentioned above. The first is preferable, imo, because almost 2 weeks isn't very long to be away, but it needs to be done asap in case the estate owner says no and you need to take steps to own the land yourself to avoid losing it.

Since it is a private sim, there's no reason you can't work out a deal with the sim owner to pay a month or more of the maintenance fees on your own. Most sim owners couldn't care less who pays the bill, so long as they have a record that it DID get paid. Their rental system might require your friend to be the one making the payment, but there's still a real person out there that is collecting this money. Just make sure that they know that if your friend fails to make the payment for any reason, you are ready and willing to make up the missed payment yourself. I am sure they can make some arrangement where you could cover the tier.

One caution though. If there are only you and your partner in the group, create an alt and add that alt to the group as well, also in the Owner role. That way, if the group creator does vanish forever, the group doesn't suddenly vanish as well! And your friend should do that as well, when they get back, just in case something happens to you!

In general though, I wouldn't worry too much. It is the Holiday season, after all, and your friend is probably just enjoying time with their RL family. If they are a college student, they might not even have net access until they get back to school...