Risks associated with 'Group' land

Would anyone be so kind as to explain to me what exactly the risks are with 'deeding' land to a group?

I'm only interested in setting the land to group as I'm a little uncomfortable having everything on it in my name ... thinking that if I wish to 'sell' the overall project I'd have no way of transferring objects to someone else, en masse?

Thanks
Leon

PS. If this doesn't make sense then attribute it to a newbie and explain where I'm misunderstanding.

If I understand it correctly, the problem with deeding land to a group is that any group officer can do whatever they fancy with the land - i.e., resell it if the land is in a mainland sim (that is, classical land ownership with tier paid to LL) or release it if the land is in a private island sim (then it will revert to the sim owner I think). To prevent this, only instate yourself as the officer of the landholding group



If the land in question is mainland and you own it, I think checking the "sell objects with land" checkbox on the "About land" window will do exactly what you're looking for.

As for being uncomfortable with having everything on it in your name - even if the land and everything on it is deeded to a group, by looking at "About land" and using the "Info" button next to the owner listing, everyone can see at least the founder and the officers of the landholding group.

Be wary of "deeding object to group" as the object becomes unmodifiable by anyone including the creator and once deeded cannot be undeeded. I like to read "deed to group" in the object editor as "remove all permissions to this object and its contents for everyone, except you can still move it".

The fact of deeding land to a group is that you no longer own the land, the group does. Any officer in the group has as much power over, and ability to claim or sell, the land as you did when you owned it. If you're not a group officer, there's no feasible way for you to ever lay any claim to the land again, ever.

Linden Lab doesn't interpret such a circumstance as risk because you're supposed to understand that you're giving the land away when you deed it to a group. A few people recently have posted thoughts on the matter here.

Actually, you can get the object back if you were insightful enough to give the next owner full modify permissions. If you are an officer of the group, you can set the item for sale for $L0, and then make sure it is still giving the next owner full permission. You then buy the object. Be careful about leaving group items on land for sale, however. All returned group items are deleted, and they are not returned to you when you have given up your ownership to the group.

There are two more small risks if the land is being sold as group land.
1. All group items will be deleted when the new owner returns all the objects, and they will return all the objects.

2. The money will be held by the group until the next day when it is divided among the members of the group. This means even people that did not contribute money toward getting the land can get some of the money for the sale. It also means that you will not be able to do anything with the money for at least a day, sometimes longer on the rare occasions when group dividends and stipends stop paying out.

Thanks for the tip; obvious, no?

Firstly, thank you to everyone who's taken the time to reply. I'll deed the land to a group and be the only officer ... should allow some collaboration if useful and wanted, but not put my land at risk



I'm not sure I understand this correctly. If the group has one officer and the land is sold are you saying that the 'whole' group may get some of the money from the sale? This doesn't seem quite right? I suppose the group members may have added to the value?

Thanks
Leon

Wether or not they have added value, when group land is sold, the proceeds are divided evenly amongst all members of the group, and automatically paid out during the next cycle ... typically the next day.

There is no control over how much goes to who. I've found the best thing to do is for the group (you being the group's agent) to "sell" the land back to you for $0. This amounts to the group giving the land back to the original owner. Then you can sell it normally, and distribute the proceeds, or not, as circumstances require.

Be sure to manage tier; you will want to withdraw tier from your contribution to the group as you go, so you dont inadvertently tier up.

Granted I have limited experience with this, and am a "belt and suspenders" kinda guy, so I when I've done this, I've perhaps gone out of my way to be careful. I've broken up the land into smaller pieces, based on what kind of "slack" I have in my tier, then move a piece back to my personal holdings, adjust tier contribution to the group. Pull another piece back, adjust tier again ... rinse and repeat.

Hope that helps.

BTW .. on group items for sale, am I mistaken, or do proceeds from the sale of a group item get distributed to the group as well? Again divided evenly amongst all the current group members?

Also, I should point out that my experience is limited solely to the mainland; I've never rented land on any of the private islands, and dont know what impact that may have. What I do know is that when a group gets money, its automatically disbursed, being divided evenly between all members.