What can I expect with this deeding situation?

[Alison Rebane]

Normally I'm pretty good at figuring things out, but in this instance I'm not really sure. I've read some things that have given me some ideas how this is going to play out but I'd be a lot more comfortable hearing about it from someone who is sure.

Here is the situation: I own 1/4th of a region on the mainland. An associate owns a 1/4th of a region as well, and it's a different non-mainland region. I own my land outright. My associate does appear as the owner of his land, but he is actually paying out to an estate manager and not LL. Both of these lands have their group set to my group, but are not deeded.

Both of these 1/4th regions already have things rezzed on them aplenty, some of which are marked as belonging to my group, some to a different group, and some to no group at all.

Here is the goal:

1) To remove my group as the "group" each piece of land is set to.
2) To set a new group (that doesn't exist yet) as the group of each land
3) To deed both parcels to that new group

I'm not entirely certain what both of us will have to do in order to make this happen. I know one needs to allocate some of their land use credits to the group, but I'm not sure how that will affect the tier I'm currently paying (i.e. with allocating a 1/4th sim before it's been deeded bump me up to the 1/2th region tier or something like that?) and I'm definitely not sure how my associate will be affected by the fact that he's paying an estate manager a fixed rate weekly.

I'm also guessing at some point, probably on step 3 above, everything rezzed will disappear since none of the things on the land are deeded to the new group. Am I right about that?

[Erwin Solo]

If I interpret correctly, you seek advice on two fronts.

Firstly, there is the land you own outright.  I can advise you on how to transfer that land and those prims to a new group of which you are the sole owner.  I've done that several times.

However, if you instead want to transfer the land to a group for which you will be joint owners with your associate, I would advise against that.  Unless, you are willing to give away your land to your associate for free, because that is essentially what you will be doing.

Regarding your associates land on an estate, it really doesn't mater much about deeding that land to a group.  She/he doesn't really own it anyway. 

Anyway, there are so many different options on this--at least in my mind--I would have to write quite a lot to handle all the different scenarios. 

What I need to help you is to know whether you want to maintain the sole right to sell your current land, or whether you want to give that right to your associate. 

Unlike RL, where land can be set up such that joint-owners have to agree to sell land, in SL any single joint owner can sell the land out from under the other owners. 

[Alison Rebane]

@Erwin

I will be the founder of the new group and sole owner. No one else will have the ability to sell. Thank you for your help

edit: And I may have some ignorance of how it works here, but what I mean to say is that whatever the maximum "owner" permissions consist of, I will retain it solely. If that doesn't prevent selling any group land from some others, well, good to know

yet another edit: and by "sole owner permissions" I mean I'll retain full rights alone as far as group permissions but my associate will continue to pay for his share and be owner of his parcel and will be part of a leadership group that has all permissions except the ones related to things like selling land or anything else that could compromise us all

[Phil Deakins]

As long as auto-return is NOT on - i.e. if it's set to zero minutes - none of your objects will disappear (be returned) when you deed the land to any group. But if you turn auto-return on, by setting the time to anything higher than zero, all objects that are not 'set' to the group that owns the land will be returned when the auto-return time you have set is up. So...

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Alison Rebane wrote:

Here is the goal:

1) To remove my group as the "group" each piece of land is set to.

2) To set a new group (that doesn't exist yet) as the group of each land

3) To deed both parcels to that new group

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1 and 2: If your land is only set to a group, but not deeded to it, simply check that auto-return is off and set it to the new group. If it's already deeded to a group, you will have to buy the land from the group first.

3: Again, check that auto-return is off and then deed it to the new group.

 

Afterwards:

Don't turn auto-return on until you have made sure that all the objects on the land are 'set' (they don't have to be deeded) to the group that now owns the land.

If you are paying for 1/4 sim, donate all your tier to the group that owns the land. You'll be able to buy an extra 10% of mainland anywhere, if you want to, when the land is deeded.

[Erwin Solo]

@Alison, I liked Phil's advice too.  Here is what I would do.  You can vary a bit depending on your situation.

 

1. Create new group.

2. Invite your Alt.  Create an Alt if you don't have one.  Use your Alt to test anything you want to test about your group permissions before you invite anyone else.  You'll be moving your Alt up and down in privilege levels and "firing" him/her from time to time.  The two non-obvious privileges to be most careful with are "accounting" and "create/assign new roles".  All Avatars with "accounting" privileges will get a equal share of any payments made the the group.  An Avatar with "create/assign new roles" can create a role with all privileges short of owner, and can do anything short of firing you as owner, including buy/sell/abandon land.  If you declare a co-owner, you cannot fire them.  Thus, only your Alt should ever be a co-owner.

3. Deed your land to your group, and check the "contribute tier with deed" box, and your tier will be transferred to your group in the same instant your land is deeded.  Your land autoreturn will be automatically set to zero (0) so that your land doesn't clear. 

4.  Run Thomas Conover's Full-Sim scanner to find all prims that are not under your new group.  Re-classify each prim to your new group. Rescan to make sure you have all of them. 

5. Set autoreturn for land to 1 minute.  Notice if any prims return to your lost-and-found.  Re-rez if so.

6.  Double-check all your group permissions.  Start inviting avatars to your group. 

Enjoy!

[Alison Rebane]

Thanks so much for the help, both of you! We won't be undertaking this process right away but when we do I will bump this up with the results (and maybe further questions ) 

You're awesome!