A moan

Ditto what Avion said.

The person (city in France) who has recently been complained about on these forums a lot for this sort of thing is a rather large estate owner.

I've been wondering when SL is going to start being victimized big time by the Keylogger crowd? The big estate owners would be the biggest targets but anyone with property would be great targets. If I had spent any real money in SL I'd be very worried about that about now, with the increase in frauds.

Words to live by, not just in SL.

No need to run from Sarah. She will never screw you (or anyone) over.

There are plenty of good landlords. Renting is a cost-effective option for many people who want to enjoy the game with no commitment. It provides a flexibility that you can't get when you own land, unless you are willing to risk significant losses due to fluctuating market values.

Many rentals - estate and mainland - offer cost effective options that you only need to commit to on a weekly basis. So when you are finally pissed off at LL for the last time, or your significant other leaves you for someone else and the memories are too tough, or you just want a change of scenery, you can pull up your tent with no fuss, no muss, and everybody's cool. You haven't lost tens of thousands of L or have to worry about losing 2 to 5L/m2. Renting is flexibility and freedom. And it's not for everyone. But it is not something to be afraid of, especially when you have no significant commitment.

I always wondered why people did this. Doesn't make any sense to me. If I owned an island, which someday I plan to, I would charge for the tier but not make anybody fork over anything more.

Well this Op isn't talking about suing anyone so no one is prompted to play devil's advocate.

I have the impression that most people are quite sympathetic to to anyone who suffers disappointment and loss.

Such is the life in SL, I think it is possible that SL has got away with so much in the past but now the con men have found it easy picking to defraud people in SL with very little or no route for recourse , so why should they stop stealing peoples money. The sad thing is that they will get away with it until there is a change in the law, which will take years.

The only governing body in this "GAME" is LL , I ask you .....do they care ?

it seems a little peculiar that after renting for one whole year, now suddenly the land owner has turned into a thief.

i think there must be more to this story.

The reason would be to provide a reason to show to _others_, rather than the renter themselves, I would imagine, in case it came to, well, threads such as this or blog posts or suchlike.

Actually I think she says after that time the land owner wanted to move them.

They were reluctant since it was a smaller/less desirable parcel and wanted compensation for the move.

Finally the land lord accused them of having illegal lag producers and booted them with Zero compensation.

Is that what really happened? Who knows.

But if it is ... then the land owner obviously evicted them because they wouldn't move to a smaller, less desirable plot without a partial refund.

you actually made my point. they were established, and the landlord had obviously proved to be trustworthy.

for that same landlord to suddenly start doing crazy things when they wouldn't comply doesn't make sense to the rest of the story.

That is exactly what happened. I know it is very difficult to trust that what people say is the truth here, but think about why that is. Every time crap like this happens it erodes the good things that DO happen in SL.

The story is as reported. Yes, it did not make sense for someone who we had had a good relationship in the past with to suddenly treat us like crap. I did not mean to imply that she makes a habit of this sort of thing, what really is the sticking point is that there is no recourse when this kind of thing happens, large scale or small scale.

Perhaps a situation that tested the quality of said landlord never came up before that.

have you since tried to discuss this with her, with emotion put aside?

Could this be the scenario? The landlord rented them a very nice place for a whole year but then wanted to do something else with the land (her own land that she owned).
Realizing that her tenants would be sad to move the landlord offered them what she hoped would seem like a good deal on another rental she had available. The tenants did not want to move and in fact kind of refused to move unless a better deal was offered. The landlord did not want to offer anything better but instead of just evicting them as was her right, she trumped up an unlikely justification first and then evicted them without further warning.
If this is the case I think the land owner made her case weaker by throwing in the the false complaint. It makes it seem as if there was something shady going on...
As you say who knows?

Well perhaps ..

But Covenant land is "Sold" first so its not entirely a rental. It even shows up on the "Land Sales" Tab.

What should have happened was the Land lord offered to give them their purchase price back. Or current Market price, or something similar.

The Land owner has the ultimate right of imminent domain in SL but it doesn't make it reasonable for them to just evict people and keep the charter money they obtained by "Selling" them the parcel.

The whole concept of Charter land is a bit contradictory

Basically the land owner is selling a parcel which never leaves the land owner's possession.

Yet it has all the same same trappings of a "Sale" that Mainland would.

What happened to the OP (assuming accurate) is an illustration in the inherent flaw of the charter land system.

Sorry to hear this yet again. I have no idea if this is a repeat offender but arbitration would probably help. It would be more honest for the estate owner to say do this or I evict you. It seems that this is a nasty pattern for some. Lindens won't help so you need to work it out on the outside. It really terrible, and makes it bad for the sim owners who actually ARE willing to try to work things out. Many have gone to bat for us with she cannot be named but she has muted them. This is why we seek to at least identify the estate owner who want residents to stay and and build their businesses.

YES Kaimi you are correct in every assumption here, Since that eviction we have discovered she had done similar to another resident on that same sim, The ower at one stage did state that she wanted the sim for her husband to build a large club on the whole sim, that has happened /happening since. When they first mentioned 'moving' they would not give the pricing of new tiers or primage or costing, No one in their right mind would move without that information anyway. The last contact the sim owner refused to talk and threw a tantrum and gave just 15 minutes to clear the sim or she would delete everything. (a lot of work had gone into building a unique place over the year) it was impossible to save that.

But I think the main point here is not the hurt or sadness or even the financial loss, we learn to live with all that even if it leaves a bitter taste.

The point is there is NO RECOURSE and it does not seem likely there ever will be.

People have mentioned a listing of sorts for good and bad sim owners, that could be a good start in helping people not to be bitten by these unscrupulous owners.

Maybe on the same web site would be advice on how to deal with this both in-world and out
I now understand that some in similar positions are actually taking matters to the law courts Maybe that will set a president? Maybe LL will take notice of such legal actions and put in something in their TOS that can protect residents against this kind of fraudulent and easy theft.

Sarah is awesome. I wouldn't worry about her screwing you over.

We have something like that in RL.

it's called "Condos".

Actually that is a VERY good comparison. I've never done a RL condo, what are the laws for reposssession/eviction? I bet they are pretty strict if the condo owner has plunked down a load of cash to buy, no matter what the association dues are and who the landlord might be.

A RL condo is Real Estate. Its significantly different than renting an apartment.

You are protected by a Myriad of laws concerning home ownership, etc.

Its not much different than living in a planned community/owners association type subdivision.

The owner of the building can not evict you and put the unit back up for sale.

Exactly, which is why that comparison seems to apply in this case. One does not usually put up a lot of money to *rent* an apartment, and even if you do put up a damage deposit there are rules about when that can be withheld. Buying land on a private sim requires a payment up front (in our case a substantial sum), plus the monthly tier fees. I think the condo situation is very similar to this. In our case, the "condo association" TOOK the money we paid up front for our "condo" even though we were up to date with our "condo fees" simply because the "condo" owner wanted to turn the building into a "grocery store". Probably used the "condo payment" to stock the damn store.