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HOW GROUP LAND WORKS

Premium Members have an amount of land allowance. The higher their monthly tier payment, the more land allowance they have, so the more land they can own. Although Groups can hold land themselves, they do not have any land tier of their own. For a Group to hold land therefore, its Members have to loan it some or all of their personal allowance. Both Members and Officers can give land allowance to the Group, but only Officers can buy and sell Group land. As an incentive for Residents to collaborate in Group projects, Groups get a 10% tier bonus, meaning that for every 10 meters of land allowance loaned to it, it can actually hold 11 meters.

Let us look at an example scenario to demonstrate how this works..

  • Mary, Lucy and Jill start a Group together. Only Mary and Lucy are Premium Members, whereas Jill is on a basic account so has no land allowance.
  • Mary has enough personal allowance to own 512m of land. She loans 300m of this to the Group. When she checks the Group land window, she sees that because of the 10% land tier bonus awarded to Groups - her donation of 300m actually allows the Group to own 330m of land.
  • Lucy can own 2048m of land, so she donates 1000m of land, leaving her with 1048m to use on buying land that she herself owns.
  • With 1300m donated to it, with the 10% bonus, the Group can now own 1430m of land. They find a plot this size, and Mary, as an Officer, uses the Buy For Group button. The Group now owns a 1430m parcel of land. Mary, being the Officer, sets Autoreturn ON, so that any objects not set to the Group will be automatically removed from the land.
  • Even though Jill has not contributed any allowance, as a Group Member she can build upon the Group land, and so long as she sets her content to the Group, it will not get returned/removed by the Autoreturn.

So the three friends work away on their land together. Keep in mind, Mary and Lucy can withdraw their loan of land from the Group at any time. Let's see how this would play out.

  • One day Lucy decides that she wants to use her land allowance elsewhere. She withdraws her loan of allowance from the Group (all 1000m of it) but remains in the Group because Groups need at least three Members to exist.
  • This leaves the Group without enough donated allowance to hold the land it has. It therefore has 48 hours to replace that allowance or risk losing the land altogether.
  • Not wishing to lose the land. Jill decides to upgrade to Premium. She moves to a 1024m tier and donates all of this to the Group before the 48 hours run out. The Group now has 1324m donated, allowing it to own the 1430m plot it already has thanks to the 10% bonus.

It is important to realize that if a Group doesn't maintain sufficient land allowance for the land it owns, it can lose that land.

SELLING GROUP LAND

Officers of the Group can sell Group land. However, because that land does not belong to them (it belongs to the Group), if an Officer sells land the proceeds are split evenly amongst the Group Members and do not go directly to the Officer. This payout takes place around midnight SL Time following the sale and will appear as Group Dividend in Member's Account History (accessed from the World menu).

If you do not wish this to happen, but would rather the proceeds came to you, you will need to buy the land personally so that it is no longer Group owned and then sell it. The section below explains how this is done.

MOVING GROUP LAND BACK TO BEING PERSONALLY OWNED

To move Group land back to yourself, you will need to be a Group Officer. You will also need to have sufficient personal land allowance to hold the land - or be prepared to tier up. If your land allowance it tied up within the same Group that currently owns the land you can remove your donation from the Group and then sell the land to yourself. This works because Groups get a short grace period where they can have less tier than they need.

  1. If you need to, remove your allowance from the Group.
  2. Check that you have enough land allowance spare in World Menu.. My Land - to hold the Group parcel you wish to buy. Because Groups get a 10% land bonus, you may find it holds slightly more than you can hold even with all your donation withdrawn. In that case you may have to divide the land and not take all of it.
  3. On the About Land screen, General tab for the parcel, set yourself as the buyer. To do this use the small Set button under the For Sale section. This is very important, as it stops anyone else appearing and buying the land before you can .
  4. With you set as buyer, set the Sell For $L price. As you are buying it for yourself - you can set this as $L1 if you wish. If you want the Group Members to receive something for the land, you can set it for a higher amount. Click the tick box to set the land for sale.
  5. Now you can simply buy the land as normal, taking ownership of it yourself. Once you own the land, you will be able to set a more realistic price, unset yourself as buyer and sell it on if you wish.