Owning vs. Renting

In this thread, Dianne Mechanique said,



I'm fairly new in Second Life, so I'm not familiar with "the standard kind of rental agreements and setups that are all over SL" - could someone explain to me what the difference is between renting and owning?

After all, "owning" a plot of land in Neualtenburg doesn't give you absolute ownership (it's "just" a deed, which can be revoked), and you have to pay monthly upkeep, which is more akin to rent. (Then again, you have to do that on the mainland, too, as land use fees.)

What things can an owner (either in the mainland sense, or in the deed-to-group sense) do that a renter cannot?

It is my impression that the key distinction would be a matter of political rights. All "owners" are by definition citizens (and vice versa), and have the right to vote and serve on the RA or SC. If we allow renters, would those renters be granted the same political rights?

Also, I think I used some loose language there when I said "standard rental agreements."

I meant to refer more to standard rental situations as in a "typical" rental in an SL mall setting. I am unaware of the specific content of a standard rental agreement in SL or if there is such a thing.

Claude has got right to the point of my comment, which was more of a philosophical thing than a concrete proposal.

An owner also has the ability to resell their lot. That's a liability in a down market, but nice to have when N'burg land is at a premium.

Neualt has the interesting opportunity to kick around what its rental agreement would say. This could form a model from which other landlords might adapt their own rental agreements.

Anyone: Simple rental agreements are common in SL for residential and retail spaces. Has anyone a rental agreement form to suggest that might be good for this purpose of renting a commercial space in Neualt?

The issue of "owning" vs "renting" property in SL gets fairly confusing because different people have different ideas of what those two terms mean, here are a few things that people may think differentiate owning vs renting:

Paying monthly rent vs. not paying a monthly fee. This is a naive RL definition, which, increasingly does not even apply to RL (think of neighborhood association fees, long-term mortgages) anymore. Needless to say, you basically have to pay a monthly fee for any land in SL.

Paying LL vs. Paying a Resident their monthly dues. For many people, if you pay tier to LL for a piece of land, you "own" this piece of land. If you pay a resident, then it is simply renting.

Ability to resell property. Anshe has in her own inimitable way argued that paying a monthly due whether to LL or a Resident does not really make a difference; what differentiates owning vs renting in SL is that you are able to resell the land that you "own".

Access to parcel tools. I believe one of the biggest reasons that people who purchase property in islands have a sense of ownership on their particular property is that they have access to parcel tools. That is, they can set the music and video URLs for their property, ban/freeze people from their land, return items, etc.

These days, probably a combination of the last 2 bullet points defines most people's expectations of "owning" land in SL. I think "ability to resell property" is a technical condition, that a piece of land isnt really yours if you cant sell it to another person.

But access to land parcel tools gives people stronger emotional sense of ownership over the property. These tools allow owners to have control over the property that visitors, guests, and other interlopers do not.

If we are going to have second-floor condos in the platz, like Kendra proposed, as long as that flat can be bought and sold, it satisfies the "ability to resell property" condition for owning property; but the owner might have to give up access to parcel tools, thus giving a weaker sense of ownership than what is currently expected by the general SL populace.

As to whether renters should be granted citizenship status, I believe there is no constitutional barrier, as land ownership is not listed in the eligibility requirements for citizenship. That being said, I believe land ownership has been a traditional citizenship criteria for nburg because of the sense that a land owner would have a more vested interest in keeping the sim alive and running smoothly. The reluctance to give citizenship status to renters may come from the fear that renters will have significantly less emotional investment in the sim.

As a practical matter, there is also the fact that land owners contribute directly to the city in the form of land use fees. In the future, there may be 2 kinds of renters, one kind will rent directly from the city, another class of renters may be renting from other citizens (I hasten to add that this is currently not allowed). Should we allow either kind of renters, and if so, should we grant citizenship to one or both kinds of renters?

What do you think?

Are there finalised eligibility requirements for citizenship? I was under the impression that they're still being hammered out.

And... manage their prims! Very important! Also, rez objects which are not returnable or deletable by others (except members of their own personal group).


Sudane

Under the current system, you are a citizen iff you own land in nburg. However, this, I believe is a tradition, rather than a formal arrangement (someone correct me if I'm wrong). The issues that are being hammered out is whether this should be changed, and if so, what form should the new idea of citizenship take?

The nburg constitution itself provides very light criteria for eligibility: "Citizens must be referred by two members of the group. Citizens must agree to uphold the constitution." Which is what I mean by no constitutional barrier -- the constitution does not say that citizenship is tied to land ownership.

I think this is an important discussion, especially in the light of the expectation that the RA will be working towards revising the constitution. (It may be a good idea to remove the "referred by two members of the group" part).

What does "managing your prims" mean? Or, what's to manage about prims?

If you own a lot, the allocation of prims, how many you have, what to keep, what to lose, is entirely your own decision. If your rental arrangement is of land owned by somebody else, they may well locate prims on that parcel which you have no control over. And further, if a parcel is not assigned uniquely to your rental (such as if you live upstairs from a shop used by someone else), then the prim issue is completely chaotic (in my opinion).


Sudane