Bill: Vote Rental Rights Resale Ban Act

[Dogen851]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
​

---

A BILL TO

BAN THE RESALE OF RENTAL RIGHTS AND PROTECT NEW PLAYERS




​

---

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:


​

PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Rental Rights Resale Ban Act'.

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

(3) This Act has been authored by President Antonfr, building on the Rental Rights Removal Act by EmeraldGuuy and Vennefly.

(4) This Act has been sponsored by Representative Dogen851, and co-sponsored by Deputy President of the Senate _GreyMC.

(5) This Act amends the following Acts:

(a) Redmont Civil Code Act
(b) Property Standards Act
(c) Executive Standards Act

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) Some players rent government leasehold regions and then sell the right to rent them to other players, most often new players who see listings in #realestate and do not know the region could be rented from the Government directly.

(2) The purpose of this Act is to ban the sale of rental rights while making sure that the penalty falls on the seller, not on the new player who was taken advantage of.

(3) This Act also introduces fines for exceeding plot limits while giving people a fair chance to correct honest mistakes, sets one standard definition of an eviction report, and clarifies which plots the Realtor exemption applies to.

3. Definitions

(1) The definitions of Eviction Report, Leasehold Region, and Rental Rights are set out in §3 of the Property Standards Act, as amended by this Act.

PART II — AMENDMENTS

4. Amendments to the Redmont Civil Code Act

(1) Section 8 of Part VII of the Redmont Civil Code Act is amended as follows:

"8. Plot Limitations
Violation Type: Administrative
Remedy: Eviction; Administrative action
(a) First violation: Up to 20 civil penalty units; Eviction of excess plots
(b) Second violation: Up to 40 civil penalty units; Eviction of excess plots
(c) Subsequent violations: Up to 80 civil penalty units; Eviction of excess plots
A person commits a violation if the person:
(a) owns or rents more properties than allowed under plot limitations §17 of the Property Standards Act, without a valid Realtor exemption; and
(b) fails to divest themselves of or unrent excess plots within 7 days of:
(i) exceeding the applicable plot limitation; or
(ii) losing eligibility for a Realtor exemption, including by failing to resell excess plots within the time limit required by the law.
the resolve time set by DCT policy after an eviction report is filed against the excess plots.
Eviction may proceed in accordance with DCT policy, but civil penalty units shall not be incurred where:
(c) the person divested or unrented the excess plots within 48 hours of being given written notice of the eviction report; or
(d) the excess arose because another person transferred ownership or tenancy to them without their consent.
Relevant Law: Act of Congress - Property Standards Act"

(2) The following Section is appended to Part VII of the Redmont Civil Code Act:

"19. Sale of Rental Rights
Violation Type: Administrative
Remedy:
(a) First violation: Up to 40 civil penalty units; Restitution to the buyer
(b) Second violation: Up to 80 civil penalty units; Restitution to the buyer; Eviction from any Leasehold Region held by the seller
(c) Subsequent violations: Up to 120 civil penalty units; Restitution to the buyer; Eviction from any Leasehold Region held by the seller
A person commits a violation if the person:
(a) offers or attempts to sell Rental Rights to a Leasehold Region through any form of communication; or
(b) sells, or receives any payment, item, or other consideration in exchange for, Rental Rights to a Leasehold Region, including by vacating or transferring a Leasehold Region in return for payment.
This violation shall not occur where:
(c) the consideration is only for items or builds belonging to the person, at no more than their fair market value; or
(d) the transfer was approved by the Department of Construction and Transportation.
An offer and a completed sale of the same Rental Rights shall count as a single violation.
The buyer of Rental Rights does not commit a violation under this Section and shall not be evicted solely because they bought Rental Rights, unless they knowingly acted on behalf of the seller.
Relevant Law: Act of Congress - Property Standards Act"

5. Amendments to the Property Standards Act

(1) Section 3 of Part I of the Property Standards Act is amended by appending the following:

"(h) Eviction Report. A report, also referred to as a compliance report, filed by the Department of Construction and Transportation or a building inspector stating that a region does not comply with law or DCT policy, which may lead to the eviction of that region.

(i) Leasehold Region. Any region owned by the Government and made available for rent, including Government Subsidized Commercial Spaces.

(j) Rental Rights. The right or ability to rent a Leasehold Region.

(2) The definitions in subsections (1)(h), (1)(i), and (1)(j) shall apply to all Acts of Congress and department regulations, and any reference in law to a compliance report shall be read as a reference to an eviction report."

(2) Section 17 of Part III of the Property Standards Act is amended as follows:

"17. Plot Limitations

(8) Government Subsidized Commercial Spaces. A citizen may not own rent more than 2 of each type of Government Subsidized Commercial Space.

(9) Realtors. Any citizen with a Realtor job may exceed these limitations by 5 plots each:

(a) excluding BM plots, FR plots, and Government Subsidized Commercial Spaces Ranch plots, Farmland plots, Government Subsidized Commercial Spaces, and any other Leasehold Region; and

(b) provided the plots exceeding these limitations are for the purpose of reselling the plot within 30 days of purchasing the plot.

(3) Section 21(3)(a)(i) of Part IV of the Property Standards Act is amended as follows:

(i) a building inspector has filed a compliance report an eviction report against the region; or

(4) Section 22(2)(a) of Part IV of the Property Standards Act is amended as follows:

(a) This requirement does not apply where a building inspector has filed a compliance report an eviction report against the region."

6. Amendments to the Executive Standards Act

(1) Section 11(1) of the Executive Standards Act is amended by appending the following:

"(d) Filing eviction reports and evicting regions which do not comply with law or DCT policy."

PART III — MISCELLANEOUS

7. Transition

(1) No civil penalty units shall be incurred under §8 of Part VII of the Redmont Civil Code Act, as amended by this Act, for plots held in excess of plot limits at the time of this Act's signage, where the excess plots are divested or unrented within 7 days of this Act's signage.

 

[unalign]

I think , read my reasoning:

1. Rentals are already slowly becoming available as the wave dies down.

2. I don't think it will help with rental scarcity much, rental right sellers are heavily incentivized to sell it fast to not keep paying rent and get a quick buck
Example: 10 CBDs 20 people want at the current rent price
- With no ban: People snipe it just to auction to those 20 people, the sniper gets surplus
- With ban: Those 20 people camp to snipe it instead of paying the sniper
Nothing changes, still 20 people wanting 10 things

3. It makes someone that wants a CBD to camp rentals instead of just paying someone to camp the rental for them

4. It fixes the symptom, not the issue (subsidized rentals next to spawn being available to anyone), this is just a lazy fix which I don't think will help. A way better fix is to increase way more CBD next to spawn prices, and have a proper renting portal.
Also sidenote about subsidies: I personally believe it is way more socially useful to put money in UBI or other stuff rather than subsidizing rentals and dealing with this.

5. There's no direct harm caused in a simple transaction, only indirect harm which is way harder to even calculate.

Problems that I'm trying to amend:

1. "Eviction from any Leasehold Region held by the seller" implies eviction from ALL their leasehold regions

2. Town Rights This applies to a town even if the town wants to allow rental right sales (motion already passed yay)

3. This would also apply to rental rights of non-government persons, I think they should be allowed to sell it (if the rent is clearly disclosed). It being a gov plot was the only reason rental right sales could initially be justified. (motion already passed)

4. The penalty is excessively punitive:
- Plot limitations are already caught automatically so no punitive punishment is needed.
- Sale of Rental Rights already has restitution to the buyer so high CPU are not needed.

5. If the buyer offers to a seller which doesn't know about this law, the seller effectively gets punished and the buyer keeps the Rental. (motion failed :/)

Counter-arguments:

1. People were sniping CBDs purely to resell them:
- Right now people that have CBDs will not be able to sell them and won't unrent.
- The snipers just sell them to be able to get their next CBD and to not pay the rent.
- The sniper is effectively just sniping for the final buyer.
Pick your poison:
- Not be able to sell at all and have some people just hoard them and not sell.
- Allow a middleman that would not use the plot for a few days to sell.

2. It is a gov plot so the gov can decide: It is just a reason to allow this and not count as gov overreach in the first place, but not a reason to actually do it if it makes more harm than good.

DM me if you want to add a counter-argument

What I think would be a better solution and would and support:

1. MORE CBDs, the gov plots near spawn can expand vertically.

2. A proper in-game rental searcher filtered by lowest m2

3. Increase rent prices, use that increased rent for welfare instead of limited subsidies and having people fight for it.

4. Make more rentals new-player only.