Renting, Middlemen, and Subclasses

In an email that a few members of the city shared, the issue of renting land and the rights of renters was brought up. I thought I'd post some thoughts on it to see how people feel.

In our current model we sell a deed (land) and then charge a monthly (land-use) fee to hold that land. Should the city also rent land or should we stick to strictly selling deeds and collecting monthly fees as a nonprofit cooperative? Should individual land owners be allowed to rent out land?

My initial feeling about this is that we should not allow either the city or the citizens to rent out land. (I just had a change of opinion on this today. ) The reason is, that the enforcement model for our government depends on having the value of one's land as an incentive for compliance. Renters would have no such incentive. We could modify this by requiring deposits, although land is already so inexpensive in the center of the city, isn't that what we're essentially doing?

I'm also concerned about introducing middlemen into the process of buying, selling, and renting land. In my opinion, poor regulation and enforcement of land sales in SL is one of LL's great failures. I'd like to see all lease transfers receive approval from the government. With this we'll know who to bill, who actually owns the land, and prevent gouging or land speculation without contribution.

Finally, I'm concerned about creating a subclass of citizens, in this case renters, who don't have the same rights (voting or holding office) as land owners. I feel we should have one set of rules for all folks, including those who are just visiting.

What are your thoughts?

~Ulrika~

I would love to comment. But despite all the reading I've been doing, I am still slightly confused about how land is handled in Neualt. I see the word "deed", but I'm not sure what that means. Are we allowing anyone to do anything they want on this "deeded" land? If so, how would that stick with the government rule? Or is the land held by someone (that represents the "land" of Neualtenburg) and the "deeded" land is simply something someone else can "live, work, play" on?

I have a hard enough time explaining to my hubby how SL works. Even though he is a long time gamer like myself. And we pay on his credit card, share finances, etc. I am loathe to even try and approch the subject of "I want to pay this and this amount to LL" but this amount to the person that holds this land on this project I'm working on". Especially when I have a hard time understanding it all myself. Of course it took me a while to figure out how tiers worked in SL in the first place. haha

Is there never going to be a chance for someone to donate their land to the group from tier in order to be in this project? Is there ever going to be a chance someone could pay with $L to be "deeded" land in Neualtenburg?

Those questions asked, I will say that even if we choose not to go the route of "renting" land in the sense that you are describing above Ulrika (which I'm still of course confused on - is it similar to how Anshe does her land?); I think that allowing someone to "rent" out their land in the old world sense is still a good idea. Example: Deeded land is mine, I work out a transaction with someone where they pay me x amount a week to put a vending machine in my shop. Just an example.

Anyway, I'm still reading. While I figure out this land thing, is there anything else I can be doing right now to help the project along?

I can clarify.

The Lindens are currently taking exception to the phrase "selling land" as it relates to private sims. They want private-sim folks to make a distinction between the Linden brand of selling land and the private-sim brand of selling land. So, we're using the phrase "selling or transferring a deed", where the deed is a document that gives someone the right to build upon that patch of land. In a way, the land is never actually sold, just the rights to exclusively build on it are.

Attached to every deed is a legal document called a covenant. These covenants state what someone can or can't build on their land. So on deeded land, folks are bound by our cooperative's terms of service (to be published tonight), restrictions placed in the covenant, and all laws of the city.

It's not possible to donate unused land tier to private sims. However, we will allow payment in L$! We're talking about that right now by email. I believe we have small lots in the city walls that go for as little as L$400 per month. It's practically free.

It is very similar to the way others with private sims do it, except there is a purchase price upfront and we're nonprofit. What we're doing is selling shares of the actual sim. Folks are actually buying a piece of the hardware. All monthly payments from then on are just a share of the US$200 monthly charge. It is completely nonprofit.

Certainly! The terms of service document is coming up tonight. Like the constitution, it will need folks to look over it. After that I'll publish the first deed and covenant, followed by a couple of proposals to tidy up the constitution.

For example, now that the city is selling land (deeds), there is a question of whom monitors the covenants and zones the land. Is it the RA, the Guild, or the Philosophic branch? It seems like law (the covenant) belongs to the Philosophic branch. It seems like the Guild should have a say in the covenant as well, since they're responsible for implementing it. Where does this leave the RA? Where and how do they contribute? (I'll start a new thread. )

~Ulrika~

I feel all these are good reasons to at least postpone any consideration of renting out land by anyone. Ultimately, market pressures may move us to allow this service by individual citizens. I don't think the City itself should be in the business of renting out property.

If the City decides to allow property to be rented, then we can deal with the political and governance issues at that time.

Sudane

Sounds great. I'll place a no subleasing policy in the covenant tonight. We'll leave it for a future RA.

~Ulrika~