Advice needed for a basic covenant and/or rental agreement for a private sim

[IndiaRose Muircastle]

Hello everyone:

My friends have owned land in SL for a long time. They started with mainland, and have gradually moved up to a private sim. They have always rented to anyone who is interested in having a home on their land. They have never had a covenant, or even a formal rental agreement as far as I know. So far they have been pretty lucky, in that people have been good tenants  who pay their rent and do not go over their prim counts (other than the ocassional miscalculation, in which case a gentle reminder always seems to do the trick) and respectful of their neighbors. 

Due to a few things that have occurred recently, they have thought of putting a covenant or rental agreement into place.  Some is due to the changes in TOS, where they thought it might be a good idea to clarify things in writing. Some is due to issues that did come up with one tenant, where they did have some problems and want to try and keep anything similar from happening again.  And some is because we all learn over time that as folks come and go, what one person thinks is perfectly fine may not be to others, and it is maybe better to spell out a few things in advance and avoid any conflicts or hurt feelings later on. 

My friends want to be responsible sim owers, but they do not want or feel the need for something exhaustive. They really want people to be able to enjoy themselves, and would just like to make sure that some things are clear for anyone who visits or rents a home or shop on their land. 

So first of all, is there a difference between a covenant and a rental agreement?  Is either considered more appropriate for certain situations, or more... "binding" in a sense, as much as something can be "binding in SL when dealing with renting land?

And secondly, if anyone has ideas about how to write either one, I would be grateful. Perhaps there is a template for the basics of either one that someone could point me to?  I did a search of the forums for "basic covenant" and "basic rental agreement" and found nothing specific. (What I did find did not seem to fit the situation.)  If there are other areas to search, please let me know!

Thanks very much,

India

[Marc Claridge]

Hi India,

i will try to answer your questions in hope to find the correct words because english is not my native language.
Its not required to have a covenant, but its very recommnded.  Very good if you have good renters who are thoughtful and dont bother anyone. But unfortunately this is not the case with everyone.  Some people need to get some rules or restrictions. So my advice is that you think about the rules you want to give the renters in order to prevent or solve upcoming disputes.

There is no template or basic agreement because its up to the owners of a private region which rules they want to write in their covenant. LL dont screw you down with that as log as it goes along with their terms. You can look around to other sims and see the covenant in about land to get some ideas. But please dont copy other covenant, thats not nice. All owners should think about their own rules.

The renter of a parcel has to accept the covenant in the diolag window when he purchases the parcel. So in your words it is binded to the parcel he owns, in my understanding its more like a contract, but it doesnt matter how to call it.  In case of a dispute he cannot say, he didnt know the rules because he accepted while purchasing the parcel. For this reason its good to have a covenant.

Greetings, Marc.

[Lizard Howl]

India -

There are a wide variety of Covenants avaialble.  Best thing to do is visit various sims to get a feel for what is common.

In our Estate the vast majority of our sims have what we call a "No Covenant" covenant which states where and how our residents need to pay tier, and reminds them to follow Terms of Service.

Many Estates offer "zoning" of Residential or Commercial sims.  In this case the Covenant would specify what the zoning is and what that means.  For example, no clubs allowed, or no houses allowed.

From there, they can get fairly silly with the addition of legal disclosures and fine print.

You asked for a simple covenant, visit any of our sims and you will see them.

Other things you might want to include: terraforming limitations, building restrictions, parcel access restrictions, security systems, etc.

Have fun, and good luck.

Lizard Howl

Segarra Estates Owner

[IndiaRose Muircastle]

Thank you both, these answers are very helpful!

@Marc:  Thank you for your reply, I find a lot of sense in what you say.  I think it is helpful to consider what could be issues, and create rules around them in particular.  I thank you for noting it would not be right to copy another sim's covenant. It is more fair, and more suitable, for us to make our own.

On this particular sim, the properties are not parceled for people to "purchase" as they are on many other sims. (This choice was made for a number of reasons, and although it can make things a bit difficult in some respects, it has also worked well in many others. ) There is both residential and commercial space availible, and a rental box is provided for each, with the number of prims alloted to that rental noted.  I think that a rental box can be set to give a notecard regarding information for tenants, and a similar dialog box can be set up to require renters to agree to the covenant.  I will look into that. 

 

@Lizard:  Thank you for mentioning the "No Covenant" covenant, it is a very simple and straightforward solution, and a great starting point for my friends. I think what may wind up happening in the end would be sort of a "low covenant" covenant, so to speak... in that people be reminded they are expected to pay rent, follow TOS, and add a few basic rules that might be specific to the sim itself or tenanncy on it. There is enough fine print out there, and too much of it winds up being meaningless and/or confusing. 

I'm open to any other ideas, so if people have something to share, please keep them coming!  Meanwhile I am going to suggest my friends come up with a basic list of the issues they find most concerning, and what rules they would like to follow from there.

 

Thanks again,

India

[Marc Claridge]

Hi again,

yes right, a rental box can be set up in that way that the renter has to accept the agreement he got in a notecard. At least the hipporent system has this feature.

Truelly there is much to consider about rules or how to organize. No doubt you have good reasons not to parcel the land. But on the other side this might cause other problems. For example people would like to set their own music or video url they want to listen to what wouldn't be possible on not parceled land. Hence, you could think about to limit some permissions in the estate manager window. But i cant give more advice about that unless i know more about your intensions and plans.

[IndiaRose Muircastle]

Marc Claridge wrote:

"No doubt you have good reasons not to parcel the land. But on the other side this might cause other problems. For example people would like to set their own music or video url they want to listen to what wouldn't be possible on not parceled land. Hence, you could think about to limit some permissions in the estate manager window. But i cant give more advice about that unless i know more about your intensions and plans."

note: partial quote of preceding post

Marc, you are correct, the question of parceling or not parceling has come up several times. Thankfully it has led to few problems, but it does get discussed quite a bit!  This information may clarify things a bit.

As I mentioned, this is a full private sim that has residential and commercial rentals. (All rentals include a house/shop, plus an allotment of prims for the renter to use for furnishing, vendors, etc.)  The idea was to use the open areas such as the moors, pond, and other scenic areas as public space so that everyone could enjoy them. So anyone in the land group can rezz a picnic basket by the lake, for example, as long as they are in their prim allotment (and clean it up when they are done, or if they are told it is okay, they can leave it for others to use.) I cannot recall any times that someone has taken advantage of using the "public" areas of the sim and rezzed something inappropriate or anything like that.  I do know that a few times, people have placed things that they set to group, and gone over their prim count that way. (I must include myself, and a few mad landscaping schemes that led me astray... but I am much more careful now, I promise!)  Residents cannot terraform, although the sim owners have worked with folks to make small changes if asked.

The sim owners are content creators, and have a large building platform they use for making the buildings used on the sim and for sale. Parceling has been an issue because it limits the area where the platform can be, and at times I believe there have been difficulties. For example, if a cottage is being built on the platform, and the builder tries to rezz over a section that has been parceled, it can cause some small headaches. Normally everything is fine, but if something very large is being created "in the clouds", it is a bit easier to have the space for it to spread out and keep track of the number of prims it uses than it is to make sure it is all fitting over one section of the property.

In addition, there are events hosted on a fairly regular basis, such as concerts, parties, and such. These usually require some sort of staging to be set up, and there again there is need for a fairly large area to be open for such things. It's difficult to dismantle a half completed castle on the platform so there is room below for the band to set up, and then put it all back later on.

Most residents seem to like the stream on the sim already, but for those who care to use their own, we have found ways that work. For example, I myself have wanted to use a certain stream at a particular time, and have been able to pull up the url on my browser and pass it to others so we all have it running on our PC in RL and can enjoy it together. In one case where this wasn't possible (I forget why, but the tenant had trouble with it somehow) the owners did parcel off that area to allow for a radio to be used without it changing the stream on the sim or disturbing any neighbors.

We also have rarely had any problems with griefers or anything like that, so very few people have ever wanted to use a security orb/system.  I only recall two people asking to use that type of system, and in both cases they were able to set it up to create a bounding box that was just inside or outside the walls of their home. 

If you have any suggestions on the above, I would be glad to hear them from you. Perhaps there is a simpler method which we have overlooked, or something we have not considered enough?  The owners have always wanted a sort of open and shared isle for everyone to enjoy, and it has worked well so far. However, it is always good to think about things and be open to changes.

Thanks again,

India

[Marc Claridge]

Hi India,

thanks for explaining your reasons not to parcel the sim. I understand the interest of the builders that they need space and prims for their creations. But you should consider that there might come up an issue when your sim is filled up with renters what hopefully will be. Because you have to reserve the promised amount of prims for the renters, this limits the amount your content builders have available. Or in other words it might happen, then that a builder rezzed something very big and a renter has no prims available to rezz in this time.

So my suggestion is the following scenery which covers all the interests.
1. Make parcels around the sim at the water side to rent out. Advanage: The renter is able to change the parcel settings as far as you didn't limit in estate manager window.
2. Give a primbonus to the sim (about 20%). Advantage: So you can have smaller parcels than they would normally be and so the area in the middle becomes bigger for the builders,
3. In the middle area you can provide a community place for renters and guests that they can have party. Of course you can set it to the goup of residents that they have permission to rezz or maybe leave open for guests to rezz, but then with auto return that you dont need to clean up.

About the terraforming: You can disallow this in estate window, but in my opinion its not required. Its possible to bake the terrain so you can revert it in seconds if someone might mess it up.

If you are interested please have a visit on my sim called "Niko". Ok its a question of personal taste if you like the style there. But it shows exactly what i was trying to explain. In the middle there is much space for guests or renters to meet and have party, and in the air above i have much space and prims available to build and i even rent out skyhouses there.

Greetings, Marc.

[IndiaRose Muircastle]

Dear Marc:

 

I am sorry it has taken me so long to reply to you. I appreciate your thoughts on this. you were very thorough and clear in your explanations.

I have passed the information on to my friends, and they are excited to think they may be able to parcel property off to the residents without adversely affecting their building platform.  Thanks very much for your help!

Take care,

India

[Sirius Selona]

Hi India,

To your question of what the difference is between a covenant and a rental agreement, both are forms of contracts. However, their similarities end there. Both a covenant and a rental agreement can apply to real property. In Second Life a sim (land) is the equivalent of real property -- real estate -- in the real world.

A COVENANT is used to specify conditions tied to the use of land. In Second Life, this would mean the entire sim or parcels owned by the people agreeing to the covenant. Such conditions might include whether or not a particular theme applies to the land. Who can put up buildings and landscaping, and what kind. Whether or not fences are allowed between parcels. How the roads, if any, are to be laid out. What kind of use the land can be put to: commercial, residential, mixed use, clubs, rentals, parcels subdivided for sale, etc. Also how you want the land to be rated: PG only, Mature or Adult. Also whether or not skyboxes and platforms are allowed, and how high they must be. Whether or not boats, land vehicles, planes and other types of vehicles are permitted. And so on. A covenant can also specify what happens if someone violates the terms of either the covenant, itself, or a rental agreement.

A RENTAL AGREEMENT is used to specify the details of a single rental. How much the rent is, what the payment period is, whether or not proxy payments are allowed, and what use a tenant can make of the parcel s/he rents. In Second Life, it would also include the number of prims allowed for the rental. Whether or not a tenant is allowed to have a security orb, or to control any of the About Land features. If you construct your covenant wisely, one provision of the rental agreement would be that tenants had to abide by the land's covenant. Then the rental agreement could be more brief and tailored solely to that one rental property.

I hope this helps.

[Irene Muni]

And some general ideas: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Covenants

[Dargo Sin]

On 9/22/2010 at 6:48 AM, Irene Muni said:

And some general ideas: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Covenants

The page on that link is broken and is longer of use currently.

[Dyna Mole]

Extinct thread.