Clear warning on housing and escrow

[MuseSings]

My response for a GM regarding my lost escrow from a character reroll was that all the items in the house go into the escrow of the character listed as owning the house and cannot be restored. NO WHERE does it say this BEFORE I decided to reroll my house owner as a minstrel. All it said was that my house would be abandoned. Since ALL of my characters are forced to share this house, I figured my decorations would go into escrow for all characters to access. Instead, they were deleted. My suggestion is that there be a clear warning about what happens with escrow. It doesn't say anywhere in the game that escrow only goes to the house holder. It is not even common sense to me since all of my characters have to share the same house, common sense says they should all get access to the escrow.

Either way, anyone else who hasn't abandoned a house to know how it works, be advised that escrow is only available to the character listed as owner and if you delete them, you delete all of your stuff as well.

[Laurefinde]

I found this out the hard way too. I transferred my main character to another server. Before he left he paid up the house rent and stored things he thought the alts would need. Then transferred. No one told me (and I never read anywhere) that the house and all its furnishings, etc. would go poof! Thankfully I told several other folks who were transferring and they saved themselves from the heartbreak of losing everything.

[MuseSings]

That was my other thought in making this suggestion, kinda help spread the word to decrease the amount of people that might have to learn the hard way otherwise

I can see with you how you never got any message. I had to delete the old Vivianel before I could reroll her as a minstrel. It was when I tried to delete her that I got a warning message that I would be forced to abandon my house. That everything went only to her escrow and was promptly deleted with her doesn't even make sense since a few of the items were bound to other characters.

Either way, I think they need clearer warnings about escrow and house abandonments.

[carlosjuero]

Maybe just make it so that on deletion of the 'owner' of the house, the next character in line (age wise/level wise/whatever) gets the deed transferred to them (or a button in permissions to 'Transfer Ownership' which brings up a list of other characters on that server?)? That would make sense, to me at least, considering how every one of your characters on that server has to share the house and can't own their own properties.

[JeanCarlo]

Ok, dumb question as I've never had to use the Escrow service, but can anyone in your account (i.e. besides actual character that previously owned) use the Escrow to get your stuff in there?

And when does a house go into escrow now - aside from a char deletion? (I thought it just gets locked if you don't pay)

[Stilgaard]

Ok, dumb question as I've never had to use the Escrow service, but can anyone in your account (i.e. besides actual character that previously owned) use the Escrow to get your stuff in there?

No.

And when does a house go into escrow now - aside from a char deletion? (I thought it just gets locked if you don't pay)

When you abandon a house, or when you send a bound decoration back to it's owner from the decoration panel by another character.

Since they did away with taking houses away altogether, items can only get in escrow now by these methods.

EDIT: 3rd method I can think of would be a Kin Hall being taken away due to Kinship disbandment, (either intentional or due to lack of membership activity) all the items in the Kin Hall would go into the last Kin Leader's escrow account since the current leader is always classified as the house's owner.

[JeanCarlo]

No.

Ok, that's kinda what I thought. Thank you.

[KouklaGirl]

Housing = money sink. Don't use it.

[speaksoftly]

And when does a house go into escrow now - aside from a char deletion?

Seems it doesn't even go there for char deletion as the escrow gets deleted at the same time.

Is there a way to abandon a house? I think if there is that is the ONLY situation where the escrow would take effect (thus why it bugs me that escrow is an option still at the 21st hall and the like, just let the escrow brokers in MD etc handle it).

[Stilgaard]

Is there a way to abandon a house?

Yes, it's that pesky little button next to the one most can't seem to find in order to pay their upkeep.

I think if there is that is the ONLY situation where the escrow would take effect (thus why it bugs me that escrow is an option still at the 21st hall and the like, just let the escrow brokers in MD etc handle it).

See above for more situations. The brokers elsewhere beside MD are to aid you in retrieving bound items that have been sent back to their owners by someone else decorating and removing a bound item.

Or would you rather prefer to run all the way back to "MD" as you put it just to find out that you could have picked up that bound 50lb salmon trophy someone moved out of your Kin Hall by talking to the NPC in 21st hall while you were there?

[MuseSings]

A previous poster mentioned just having housing go to the next character on your list or giving a button to pass the house to a different character. This is actually the optimal choice to settle this issue. I only made the suggestion I did because it seemed it would be easier to add a few more warnings/better explanation of escrow into the game than a feature to pass on the house to someone else.

An option to actually pass the house on to a different character would definitely be better.

[Beloth]

Turbine absolutely and unequivocally cares ZERO about housing.

I'll be shocked if they even allow someone to 'waste time' responding to this thread.

[Trilli]

Maybe just make it so that on deletion of the 'owner' of the house, the next character in line (age wise/level wise/whatever) gets the deed transferred to them (or a button in permissions to 'Transfer Ownership' which brings up a list of other characters on that server?).

This would seem the most ideal solution.