Can I rent land or "squat" without purchasing just yet?

[Paulette Faith]

Are there zones where  i can erect a house or living unit temporarily like renting, squating, leasing etc?

[Ariel Vuissent]

There is currently no squatting allowed in SL. (You can do it, but beware once the owners find out!) You can rent, easily; just look around. Many places DO require you to "purchase" the land you'll be renting, as a sort of setup fee, but you can find places where that fee isn't much. Are you trying to avoid purchasing land from LL, i.e. mainland? Just rent it from another user. Like I said, you "buy" the land as a sort of set-up fee, but can sell it again without much trouble, usually.

[Rolig Loon]

You can't squat legally.  Just as in RL, if the owner catches you building on his land without permission, you will be ejected.  People rent land all the time, though.  I have rented shops and the parcel where I have my home for several years and have had good landlords in every case.  When it comes right down to it, we are all leasing from LL, directly or indirectly.  Even if you "buy" your own private estate, you are still paying LL an annual rental fee.

[Lindal Kidd]

As Rolig and Ariel said, squatting is not legal.  You can DO it, but you have zero rights, and if the land owner catches you he can kick you off in a couple of mouse clicks.

If you are determined to find land to squat on, I suggest you stick to the mainland, and look for parcels of Abandoned land.  They have no special map symbol, so you'll have to actually go walk the land, checking "About Land" on vacant parcels.  Look for ones that say "owned by Governor Linden" and "Abandoned".  When you find one, check the object return time, which must be set to 0 or your stuff will get returned in short order.  Then check to see if you CAN rez objects there.  If all three conditions are met, the land is "squattable".

I suggest only rezzing something that is 1) inconspicuous and 2) set up so that when it gets returned, it returns as a single or a coalesced object that will be easy to re-rez someplace else.  A furnished skybox is one way to do this.

Squatting is a very iffy proposition, and it's a lot easier on the nerves to rent legally.  You can rent all sorts of land...vacant parcels, empty homes that you can furnish, or even completely furnished residences.  I rent high rise condos, for example.  My tenants can furnish their units with up to 300 prims.  To find rentals, use the Search function, or look in the appropriate Marketplace or SL Forums.

[Mercury LeShelle]

There are the odd few free areas around.  But these are at land owners descretion.  Not many around and those that are are soon filled up.  Best way to get free accomodation is to get out there and make sl friends.  You might find someone that has space to let you live so long as you're not a prim hungry person!.

As others have said, you can also rent, and it can be pretty cheap.  Just get searching, and you will find somewhere that you can arrive back at and still have a some waiting for you.

Parcel and land owners can add you to ban lists, so you would be ejected straight away if you annoy them.  But land owners with any sense will have set a short object return time, or no build for non members/owners.

Remember unlike real life squatters dont have any rights, and no one needs a court order to remove you... just a click of eject....Good luck!