Renters Rights vs. Owners Rights

Hello everyone.

As of late, and with increasing frequency, I have seen private sim owners be especially viscious to their renters. I'm wondering what has happened to the sense of professional business sense that used to be so rampant in SL, where in the Renter had the right to question choices made concerning the property he is renting made by the owner.

To whit, and I'm hoping a Linden will be able to offer some insite, at what point does a Renter lose all claim to dignity and respect in preference to the owner?

A few examples I have seen first hand:

1. A renter rents a plot of land with the agreed upon condition with the sim creator that it will remain serperated from the mainland grid; in essence, a floating island. When the renter logs in a few days later they discover that their land is connected to the mianland. When the renter questions why and reminds the sim owner of their agreement, they are received with abject hostilily. "I needed more space" was the first response. That being understood, the Renter again reminds the owner of the original agreement: the renter is paying RL money, RL tier funds, for the plot of land they asked for. The response:
"If you don't like it, why are you living here?" In addition, neighbors begin verbally assaulting the renter for 'causing trouble'.

2. A renter agrees to pay a specific amount for a plot of land, but in an unexpected twist after the renter has paid the owner informs him that there will have to be additional fees for prim allocation, ect. When the renter disovers that's beyond his means, he apologizes and states he will have to move as he's not capable of paying the additional costs.
The owner refuses to refund the original purchase price.

3. A renter rents his plot of land and gets his house and objects set up nicely, and is happy. When she logs in a few days later, the house she laid down has been replaced with another and the plot has been teraformed without her knoweldge or consent. When she asks the owner what happened and why the changes were made:
"I didn't like the house you laid down, it doesn't fit with the rest of the island."

At what point does an owner forfeit his rights? I see a LOT of examples of renters being dicked over, verbally assaulted, and harrassed because they simply can't get what they were promised they would get. At what point does the renter have the right to nuke the owner stupid?

And will LindenLabs view all of these gross atrocities with a sense of justice, side with the victimized renter, and penalize the sim owner? Sim owners and land barons should not by any means be immune to Linden Labs.

The fact remains: Second Life belongs to Linden Labs. LL takes a very strong stance on intellectual property rights and not getting involved in minor squabbles. But when someone that is victimized by a criminal sim ownber I think that LL should do the right thing: Investigate the charges, make a decision and..if need be..slap the sim owner.

The way I see it, we're all renting virtual storage from Linden Lab, no matter who you decide to go through to do it.


If you're having a problem at the basic level, demand equal service or vote with your money and go elsewhere. Because there should be no compromise needed. At all.

I rented 1k prims for well over a year from the previous owner of JAVA island. It was the sort of symbiotic relationship that bears repeating across the rest of the grid, because it just worked like owning the prims.

One of the issues we hope to study in the Law Society are ways and means that are being developed to handle controversies like this.

If you think about it, LL may not have the resources or motivation to step in to resolve these issues between one of their 86 thousand members and another one. Except for extremely eggregious behavior that offends the Terms of Service, they seem to leave these issues for the society to work out.

The ability to make and enforce contracts (such as those you indicate were made) is one of the foundations of an ordered society. But how to do that in light of the power of the upper tier landlords? We already see indications of cooperatives (Neualtenburg) and "Land Trusts" being formed to attract those who want more stability in tenants' rights than your examples show is common.

One issue is how to exert sanctions (positive or negative) against those who fail to perform their contracts, and another is how to resolve disputes when two parties disagree on the terms of the contract or whether it was broken.

Your examples are an indication that there is an in-world opportunity to learn from these experiences and possibly find various solutions that may have been tried successfully. Researching and understanding those solutions, or studying proposed solutions objectively, is a function the Law Society wants to do, without taking sides on any particular controversy.

Frank