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Sarah Nerd

I HATE reclaiming land but I have to. I have to keep my islands fairly full just to cover my own tier, but I still hate doing it and have never gotten used to it. In this situation, seriously what do you think is the most fair way to handle it? It's the ones like this that really get to me and I'm never sure of the right way to handle it.

8:55] Renter: Hey..it seems tht u returned my stuff cuz rent was behind..i meant to notify you.the person who was relli paying for it broke her arm irl and couldnt get onto help me
[8:56] Renter: i know its prolly against your rules or something but could u let us keep the land till i can get her husband on or something?
[8:56] Sarah Nerd: Which sim were you in?
[8:57] Renter: chronicals of nerdia
[8:57] Sarah Nerd: I dont like returning land but no matter what I have to pay the tier I owe to LL
[8:57] Sarah Nerd: Someone already rented it =(
[8:57] Renter: oh..
[8:57] Renter: :/
[8:58] Sarah Nerd: The box doesnt pop up until its 3 days past so generally I dont get to it until the 4th or 5th. I really dislike reclaiming but if I cant pay my own tier everyone loses there land.
[8:59] Sarah Nerd: If she comes back and still wanted it I can work out a deal to make it up on a similar sim
[9:00] Renter: well she can't get on right now cuz the break in her arm is in 2 places , she needed an op for framework but she was planning on keepin the part of the sim we had
[9:14] Renter: soo im guessin there's not alot we can do now ?
[9:14] Sarah Nerd: I already rented out the land, and I did not know there was an issue.

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Bard Jameson

That's a tough one, Sarah - and you are being very nice to consider their problem at all, so kudos for that.

But everybody has their responsibilities, and offering to "make it up" to them with another parcel is probably your best option. A few months ago I was going to be a couple of days late in my rent, but I contacted Wildefire and let her know ahead of time. Seems this co-renter could have at least done that, and then I've no doubt you could have worked something out ahead of time. But just not paying the rent without notice puts you in a bad spot and it seems you are handling it the best way you can.

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Dnate Mars

Really, it should have been up to the renter that was left to notify you that there was an issue before the rent was due. I am sure it would have been easier to work out then. You did nothing wrong.

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What the...

Lucifer Baphomet

You're running a business, not a commune or a charity.

I think you're a pretty fair, and decent person Sarah, unfortunately that makes some people think you're a soft touch.

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Beebo Brink

I'm struggling with this issue right now. I have rented out my mainland parcels rather than sell because I'm very sentimental about that plot of land, even if I'm not using it right now. I set a rent that's actually slightly below my tier cost, so it's pretty damn reasonable.

One of the two tenants has paid up promply (usually in advance), but my newest tenant is over a month behind. It's a neighbor, who has expanded her holdings unto my property (which I let her do several weeks before I was officially ready to rent). So she's been using this land for close to 2 months now, but has been traveling and doesn't answer my IMs. I got one vague question about paying me several months rent using Pay Pal, but no payment has arrived in my account yet.

Part of me is so pissed that I want to just sell the land off and be done with it, but I'm trying to take a deep breath and not do anything rash. But I've now taken a hit of several months tier on this land due to moving my business to an island and needing some overlap time, now some 6 weeks of tier that I had expected to be covered.

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Fade Languish

If they'd contacted you in advance, maybe you could have worked something out with them. If the person comes back, you can make sure you look after them, relocate them or something.

One thing to consider too... had you dealt with that person before? It didn't sounds like they were the person actually renting, so it might even be he had no real authority to ask.

I think a reasonable person would understand if they had let their rent expire without contact, even if they couldn't help it.

You're running a business.

Sarah Nerd

They haven't been renting long. People that have been with me a long time I try my best to cut more slack. People that rent a week or two and it goes past I generally don't cut as much because from my experience they have moved on or lost interest. I want to be fair, but with rentals low in the first place, I have to do my best to keep up my own tier or I would lose my entire tiny empire. LL doesn't have any concern if I have issues that would make my tier late.

Fade Languish

If they'd been with you for ages it would be a bit different, they'd have a track record with you.

Parker McTeague

chronicals of nerdia

seems like what you did is reasonable, as unpleasant as it is to do.

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Sally Howard

Guess I'm a hard-ass, but doesn't something about the whole broken arm, can't log on sound just a little suspicious? Nice people like Sarah are often targets for all the beggars, never do wells, and general low-life. Just like in real life.

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Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience.

FlipperPA Peregrine

Sarah, rule your fiefdom with an IRON FIST!

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Wildefire Walcott

My rent boxes "evict" tenants when they're 5 days past due. I try to keep an eye on boxes before it gets to that point, but sometimes the eviction notice is my first indication that they're late. At that point I drop them an IM and copy/paste it into a notecard which I send them as well. In my message I say something to the effect of "If I don't hear from you within 24 hours I will reclaim the land." A little over half the time I get a frantic IM saying "OMG I forgot" and they pay the rent. But if I don't hear back I take the land.

I guess the key, for me, is communication. If you make it clear that you're about to reclaim the land and they don't act in time, you can't be faulted for taking it back. The rent boxes do send "rent due" and "rent late" notices to people, but they are green object IMs and they don't always get forwarded to email if they're offline, so I give folks the benefit of the doubt until I contact them personally.

EDIT: A couple days ago I was very sad to reclaim an openspace sim from a friend who's apparently vanished from SL and SLU. She was almost a month overdue, so I had to do it, but it made me very sad. I took pictures of her place before I returned her stuff.

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Mereille

I can't imagine that you could do any more than that Sarah. When the land goes past due, and you don't hear anything, you really don't know what is going on. Even so, and I hate to sound so harsh, but there were still 3 good arms that could have typed up a little notice for you.

When I rented, keeping up with my rent was always the first thing on my mind. In fact, I even gave my landlord two weeks advance notice when I moved to the mainland to give him time to line up another renter.

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Sooz Pascale

I don't think you could do anything else, Sarah. Its the tenants responsibility to let you know if they need other arrangements BEFORE the rent is due. Don't beat yourself up over this.

I'm lucky in that I have two of Ray Figtree's old tenants living on my sim and they are excellent.

Sooz

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reeneebob Birmingham

When I was renting I always paid up way, way in advance.

When I bought my land this weekend, I told Leeza Everett (my landlord) that I was leaving, and I didn't know what she wanted to do with the excess rent (at that point 80 days were paid in advance), but she could wait until another tenant was lined up and I would pay rent until then. I had already cleared my property out. Within an hour, she had refunded my money to me in full and said I was welcome back at any time.

If I wasn't in world often I paid up way in advance and checked in periodically to see how many days I had. I viewed rent as if it was RL - someone's income depends on it.

Troy Vogel

You're being too nice. This sounds like dog ate my homework type of excuse.... blahblahblah....

LEt them rent elsewhere... :-) Don't worry so much about it.

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Casper Priestman

I can relate Sarah, when I initially setup in SL it was to make a go of buying/selling/renting land and boy what a lesson it's been. I've had to cut back on a lot of things simply because I tried to be nice, and the more I extended myself for tenants, the more they took advantage of it, to the point of there's more than a few avi's running around that owe me a few hundred U.S. in unpaid rent. As you put it, LL doesn't care what your sob story is, you're still liable for tier, bottom line. Even those tenants who are continually late usually have a system worked out where over a short period of time are racking up free rent, and I try and counter that with a little speech on "I'm not here to fund your game, and I'm not making any profit, I just want to pay my tier". Sometimes it works and sometimes....meh.....

From what you posted, no one can fault you, and it seems pretty typical of the way things happen and the things people say. Just keep doing things the way you are.....

Tranquility

That made me smile!

nadir

at least you offered to look and see if they could have the land back

I've found the best way to get over the whole "i feel bad reclaiming people's land, but most of all, having to deal with their stories when they come back" by automating the reminder process as much as possible. I felt the need to add a personal touch still for those who have gone arrears, but I do this by relaying the IM through an object. All my reminders have my email address too just in case they can't get in-world to notify of any delays. I found this to work out great ... might work out for the folks here who don't have their own custom built system. I'm using hippo for all these .. really nice setup.

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Adam Zaius

Our policy is basically:

- 7 days official "negative" time allowed. At 3 days overdue, a CS rep will try and contact you, again at 5 days. Automated notices will have been occuring daily from the moment that you were overdue.
- Unofficial time, we usually give a few more days after this (unless say the plot is clearly empty / abandoned). It's not guarunteed or in our covenant (and should not be relied on), often this amounts to another 7 days.

If there's been no response in this period, then a reclaim will occur.

If they still want the parcel and it's still availible, we will return the parcel in return for the overdue balance on it. If it is not availible, we often have other parcels nearby or of similar size which we can offer as a substitute (again, in return for the back payment).

Reclaims do suck, and we try provide some recourse if an accident or other reason has gotten in the way, but as you said - Tier needs to be paid by us, and we take a loss on any overdue parcels.

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