Tuscany Contract
This document is the Covenant for the Tuscany Island and is a binding contract between the Sim Owner and the Residents of Tuscany Island. It is, in all ways a two way contract and includes both my responsibilities and commitments to you as well as those provisions you agree to abide by should you choose to reside or open a business here. Purchase of a parcel or parcels is considered an acknowledgement of and agreement to all provisions contained in this Covenant.
Tuscany Island offers you the service of virtual land ownership within the online world "Second Life". Before you can proceed to purchase land, you should carefully read and accept the below terms and conditions. Buying land here indicates you have read and agree to all terms in this contract. Even if, in fact, you did not.
All terms and conditions of service set forth by Linden Lab, both in their official Terms of Service (TOS) and in all official blog posts, forum posts or other official statements regarding policy, allowed behavior and terms of service must be adhered to first and foremost prior to the application of the covenant set forth below. Under no circumstances does Tuscany Island permit any behavior or actions not permitted by the Linden Lab TOS or publicized policy.
Tuscany is a zoned estate - this means that we do place limits on commercial and disruptive activity in our residential estates, see below for specific details.
Your land will not count towards your Linden Lab tier, however the Tuscany Island does operate it's own tier system for ongoing payments. Located on the side of your parcel will be a pay tier terminal - Right click to pay your tier.
You will have received your first week tier payment with your purchase. This will give you time to acquaint yourself with the process. IM the sim owner or Estate Manager once you have purchased the land.
You must join the group TUSCANY to own lands here. Go to search, groups and join. There is no charge.
This sim is part of a planned community and therefore has a more restrictive building code than found elsewhere. Please read the following carefully, if you can not comply with these rules do not purchase property here.
Termination of contract because of a violation of the covenant becomes effective immediately. There are no refunds in this case. Depending on the violation you might be banned from the Tuscany Island.
*** IMPORTANT NOTES ***
1. Tuscany Island is operated independently from Linden Lab, this means you will NOT REQUIRE a 'Premium Account' to own land here.
2. You WILL REQUIRE to maintain a 'tier' (weekly fee paid to Tuscany Island) when you own land on this estate.
3. If you purchase a parcel from a resident (any parcel listed for sale by someone OTHER then TUSCANA CLARY) you will inherit any REMAINING or OUTSTANDING (negative balance) tier.
4. Tuscany Island is a themed sim. Tuscan villas, farm houses and small estates all based in actual homes found in Tuscany. Not all builds will be suited for the sim and if you have any doubts, please discuss them with me before buying into the sim, or before buying and/or placing the build. All homes must be based on actual homes in RL.
5. The sim is rated ‘Mature’ and is a residential sim.
NOTE: The south edge of this sim will overlook Venice Island, a commercial sim.
***** LAND IN GENERAL *****
- Land sales are FINAL and BINDING. We will NOT be held liable if an officer in your group sells your land. (Please be careful when assigning group permissions for group land as any owner and/or officer in the group may sell the land on their own.)
- We CANNOT subdivide lot smaller or in any different configuration then their original ones.
- We CAN join smaller lots for you into bigger ones.
***** BUILDING CODES *****
- Most lots will come with the house in place. You are welcome to build your own home but it must be approved prior to purchasing or building on the land. You will need to make a build based on any number of the homes found in Tuscany. If you are not comfortable building your own home but have one in mind please, IM me and we can talk about the possibility of me building it for you. I will only do this if time allows me to do so.
- Buildings should not span a property edge. Tuscany Island is not a city setting. Smaller lots, less than 4000m should have 2m of open space around the building placed upon them. Lots larger than 4000m, should have 5m of open space around the building. If you need help determining what the max size building for your lot would be, please let me know. I’m happy to provide this service. Homes should not float above the land unless they are set above 550m.
- Exterior building elements should not be set to full bright unless they are clearly and obviously a light source (such as a porch light or garden light) or would obviously be lit from within such as a skylight at night might be.
- At or above 550m, you may have any style of structure you desire as a skybox or platform.
- It is preferred that fencing along the tree lined paths not exceed 1.5m in height for the bulk of the fence. A gate or the fence posts might be taller to give an effect. I would like to avoid closing in these lanes and have a more open country feel along them. Rear and side yards along the narrower paths, or along borders without paths, may be fenced in a manner so as to not be excessively tall with my discretion (and the community as a whole in mind) prevailing as to what constitutes excessive.
- It is requested that fencing be inset a meter or two from the property line. This allows both you and your neighbor to have the fencing you desire and encourages a more open feel to the pathways.
- Building in place is allowed, but if you think you’ll be under construction with notable plywood longer than a five days, please consider a sky pad above 550m for construction purposes or using the Venice sandbox. If you don’t feel comfortable moving your build, I will be happy to assist.
- 'Restrict Spatialized sound to this parcel' must be set in the World - About Land tab. This will help maintain the tranquility of the sim for all our neighbors.
- No buildings shall exceed a height of 30m (including the roof) and should not do so for the entirety of one's lot (edge to edge). If you have specific questions about a building's suitability, please contact me.
- Respect your neighbors’ privacy. We all know that privacy is largely an illusion in SL, but I would like to think we all have better things to do than camera around to find out what our neighbors are doing in their bedrooms, basements or skyboxes.
- No commercial oriented builds or objects. This includes, but is not limited to, advertising, malls, clubs or casinos.
- No rotating, flashing signs or structures.
- No subletting or sub rentals.
***** TERRA FORMING *****
- Terra forming is done via requests to the Estate Group and it will be within +/- 2 meters of the existing land base. This mean you cannot terra form without talking to us first. All terra forming controls have been disabled. Obviously if land is coming thru your living room floor WE will lower it for you.
***** VEHICLES *****
- Small sail and fishing boats are allowed and must be moored on your land if left out. Right now there is not much sailing space but we will have other islands for this in the future. Vehicles of any other type are not permitted. No cars, motor boats, helicopters, airplanes, jet skis, flying saucers, etc should ever be placed in this sim.
***** LANDSCAPING AND VEGITATION *****
- Do not remove any existing vegetation. We have placed very limited vegetation on your property but if it is there it must remain.
- If you place your own vegetation on the land, please preserve the general character of the vegetation on the sim (no palm trees in the pine forest, etc). If you see some thing you like IM one of us and we can get you something. This is Tuscany and we ask you use only plant life found in that area.
********** LAND USAGE *********
Unless noted otherwise, this land is for residential use only.
* No shops.
* No clubs.
* No malls.
* No casinos.
* No weapons.
* No large advertisements (billboards).
* No *ingo.
* No pornography or simulations of sexual activity which can be seen from outside of your house.
***** PRIVACY & CONDUCT *****
- Please preserve your neighbor's privacy. No stalking, no spying or eavesdropping scripts. If asked to leave a resident's land, do so. You should not have to be asked twice or banned for not complying with your neighbor's wishes.
- If you absolutely don't want someone on your land, ban that individual only.
- If you want maximum privacy build yourself a sky box above 550m and install a polite security device that does not use push, works only over the land that is yours and gives trespassers at least 20 secs warning.
- No sexual harassment
- No littering of objects on other residents' land or in the common areas.
- No screenshots without permission of land owners or sim management
- No flying up to other residents' private rooms in the sky
***** LAG CONTROL *****
- Lag occurs when the server can't keep up with the demands of the residents currently in it. Poorly-written scripts running in one parcel can have a negative effect on everyone's experience in the entire sim.
- The cause of lag can generally be traced to either too many scripts, a large number of large textures, particle effects, or many AVs coming together at one location.
- The following rules help to keep lag down and be nice to your neighbors:
* Keep the number of guests to a reasonable limit. A sim can accommodate approximately 40 avatars. If the number or frequency of your guests prevent other residents from entering the sim you will be asked to host your parties elsewhere.
* Don't set up any devices with lagging scripts on your land.
* Try to minimize textures on your parcel especially when they can be seen outside your building. Use 256x256 sized textures if possible, 512x512 maximum.
- No high lag scripts.
- Absolutely no spy scripts! Scripts that spy on other residents, record or transmit chat, spy on avatar movement/activities are not allowed anywhere in Tuscany.
- No scripts that transmit data directly or indirectly to external databases unless explicitly permitted by sim management
- No moving/rotating texture scripts
** Yes, we have the ability to monitor for lag and target the lag causing items. We keep a close eye on this and if you are asked to remove and item because of lag, you will be given 24 hours to do so before we return it. Repeated offenses will be cause for termination.
***** TIER PAYMENTS *****
- Your first week of tier is included when you purchase land directly from TUSCANA CLARY. If you purchase land from another individual tier is due right away.
- The payment box will accept up to twelve weeks of payments at a time. It is preferred that you do not exceed 12 weeks of prepaid tier at any time. Minimum two weeks is required. Tier is figured on a four week plan. Prices are stated monthly but paid weekly.
- The payment box will accrue back due tier and I reserve the right to penalize late payments by adding additional past due days at a rate not to exceed 25% (1 day additional for every four late). It is strongly suggested that you keep a buffer of 3-4 weeks on the tier board in case of emergency such as a broken computer, family emergency, health issues, etc.
- Residents choosing to leave (not evicted or banned) without selling their land and before the tier paid in advance has been used up, will be refunded the prepaid tier. Residents who sell their land before tier paid has expired may choose whether to include the prepaid tier with the lot or have it refunded. Notice from both sides must show agreement on the terms before refunds will be processed, and the new resident must understand that if no tier is transferred with the land, they must immediately pay first weeks tier.
- Excessive or repetitive late payments will result in a conversation in which I will ask the tenant to leave voluntarily. If this fails, forced eviction will always be a last resort, but may be done at my discretion, with no refund of original purchase price. I will not put the community in jeopardy by not being able to make tier payments because I have not received payment from one or more tenants.
***** TIER PRICING *****
Protect your investment! Don't gamble on land with no covenant, or an unenforced covenant. This sim is part of a planned community and therefore has a more restrictive building code than found elsewhere. Please read the following carefully, if you can not comply with these rules do not purchase property here.
Don't be fooled by cheaper land. There are no hidden costs when you purchase from us. Simply pay the purchase price for the land using Linden dollars.
Please note, these prices are references - we price our sims on a per-sqm scale, so if you own 3500sqm, we will bill you for 3500sqm, not 4096sqm. See each box for the correct pricing of the parcel.
IMPORTANT:
* Please always check the 'tier box' next to each parcel before buying to find a parcels exact pricing.
* Our tier box will accept payment from 2 weeks to 12 weeks
* We accept L$ as our primary payment mechanism but pay pal is available.
* Your parcel has a 2 day grace for delinquency on tier payments.
* You will pay lindens based on the current value at the time you pay. The payment box will calculate this for you.
* Prices listed per-month in $US (NOT Linden Dollars), for a month of 29.75 days.
* Tier/Rent increases: Tier/rent is guaranteed unless Linden raises its prices or other unforseeable expenses are incurred!
* FAILURE TO PAY MONTHLY TIER PAYMENTS WILL RESULT IN LOSS OF OWNERSHIP. *
***** LAND SALES *****
- Land resold by a resident is conditional on the new resident’s acceptance and adherence to the covenant and immediate payment of any due tier fees. Under no circumstances is Tuscany Island liable for any payments made to a resident (current or former) or any avatar other than TUSCANA CLARY, should the new resident find that the covenant is unacceptable, does not understand the tier fees associated with the land or any other circumstance. Please be certain that your buyer understands the terms and conditions. If you need a box placed with a copy of the covenant and tier information on the lot you are selling, please contact Melody Regent.
- Residents wishing to ‘trade lots’ within the sim will be required to sell the person the lot to them. The tier payment rules apply as if was a new purchase.
***** EVICTION OR BANNING OF RESIDENTS *****
Should I be forced to make the decision to permanently evict and/or ban a resident, for failure to pay or repeated infractions, termination will be immediate and with no refund of any prepaid tier monies or monies paid for the land up front. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
Residents may be temporarily banned for failure to comply with requests to conform to covenant. For example, if a resident puts up ban lines and fails to remove them in a timely manner upon request, they may be subject to a temporary banning in the general range of three days. Residents banned on a temporary basis for violations will receive no refund or credit of tier paid for days of ‘lost use’ during the ban period.
***** VOLUNTARY TERMINATION BY RESIDENT *****
Any resident may choose to relinquish their land at any time. If they do so without selling or transferring their land to a third party, the land will be reclaimed by the Sim Owner with no refund of the original land purchase price. Prepaid tier, however, will be refunded upon request.
***** THE NO-NO’S *****
The things not allowed in the sim are designed to provide everyone in the sim with the best possible atmosphere in which to make a home or business or to visit. Telling people what they cannot do is *not* my favorite past time. There are things, however, that I personally do not want in the sims I spend the most time in. These things make life unpleasant, laggy or just plain ugly. I have tried to keep this section really short but still cover things that I hope everyone will be happy to leave behind from whence they came.
- No ‘live’ sex acts are permitted in any area considered to be publicly accessible. What you do in the privacy of your residential building or up in a private skybox is entirely up to you so long as it conforms to Linden Lab TOS and publicized policy. Commercial areas, open land areas, and so forth, where routine public traffic can be expected, must remain free of sexual activity. This means behind closed door and above 550m.
- Bigotry, intolerance, griefing, harassment, and the like will not be tolerated, neither by residents or visitors. The excuses of ‘I was only role-playing’ or ‘my brother took over the computer’ will not prevent either a resident or a visitor from being warned and/or temporarily or permanently banned, as circumstance dictates. If you must roleplay these types of scenarios, do so outside the sim, or understand this is not the sim for you and select another sim to be your home.
- Theft/scamming will not be tolerated. Please respect the creative and intellectual property rights of others. This is one rule that will result in immediate eviction/banning if proven, regardless of where the actual offense took place. In other words, if a resident is proven to be running a scam, selling items not intended for resale by them, or the like elsewhere in SL, they will not be welcome to reside in Tuscany Island. NOTE: This includes selling other people’s (including Linden) freebie items for more than $1 per item or boxed collection.
- There will be no gambling machines or casinos allowed. This includes such ‘friendly’ games as Greedy Greedy and the freebie distribution or sales of such equipment.
- These are not combat sims and no weapons shall be wielded unsheathed upon the common grounds in any sim. Firing of weapons is prohibited on the sim no matter where you are located. Further, it is not permitted to use griefing tools to defend oneself against griefers. If you need help with a griefing situation, please use the group IM to ask for assistance from an Estate Manager. Please abuse report any such individuals and notify Melody Regent of the incident including individual’s name and any supporting evidence (such as a snapshot) if no estate manager was available to assist you.
- Camping chairs, dance pads and other similar devices are not permitted. Other devices including but not exclusive to 'Lucky Chairs' and prize balls are not specifically excluded by covenant, but may not be used in such a manner as to simulate camping. Residents may be asked to curtail or eliminate said devices upon request. Such requests will be made at my discretion and upon my judgment as to the effect their presence is having on sim resources.
- Objects or persons that ‘shout’ and create ‘spam’ within a range so as to annoy one’s neighbors are not permitted. Well-known examples would be the anti-copybot measures or prize balls (when set to shout).
- Parcels may not be sublet, nor builds created and rented in a manner to be construed as a ‘mall’, nor may land be reserved or purchased merely to ‘speculate’ and resell.
- There will be no hot spot, flashing light, dance floor laggy clubs with or without pole dancers. This includes in side your home.
- It is preferred that slaves wear at least basic silks in mature public areas as a courtesy to those who do not share the lifestyle. No nudity will be tolerated outside your property.
- No ban lines are permitted. This includes setting land to group access only or denying access by payment status. Ban lines are ugly to visitors and neighbors and impede the right of way of flight and, in some instances, traversing public paths. You may, as previously stated, ban specific individuals as necessary, save the sim owner and estate manager(s). If you ban the sim owner or estate managers you will be evicted from your lands.
- Personal disputes between residents are by definition 'personal', and neither I nor my Estate Mangers will involve themselves in the resolution of such disputes. In the case of groups disbanding or partners splitting up, the person who is registered with the payment board is considered the resident of record and will retain the rights to the property unless other arrangements are made that are verified as acceptable by the resident of record. Should claims of ‘stalking’ be made, proof must be supplied, including forwarded emails from Linden Abuse Report auto replies and, preferably, real world restraining orders copies being emailed to the Estate Owner.
- Any dispute, action or reaction which disrupts the community at large may result in warnings, temporary bans, or permanent bans. Again, this is at my sole discretion.
- Lots have the double prim allowed. You will adhere to your prim allowance INSIDE you lot lines. Items out the lines will be returned. Repeated offences with constitute eviction.
***** TERMINATION BY SIM OWNER *****
One of the biggest issues that most people have with purchasing into a private sim is the potential for that sim owner to sell off the sim and leave the residents of the sim with nothing to show from their buy in price. I agree that this is a valid concern and one I will hereby address as one of my promises to you should you choose to make your home with me in Tuscany.
In the unforeseen event that I, Melody Regent, the sim owner, elect to shut down the sims at any time, all effort will be made to make an equity settlement on the residents of the sims. In other words, your purchase into the sim enables me to have the sims and provide the level of support, quality of lifestyle and so forth present here and it is only fair, should the twists of fate compel me to abandon my responsibilities to you, that I share in whatever monies I receive back from selling the sims so that you recoup some or all of your investment in our community. I cannot promise every Linden of your original purchase price back to you, but I will repay each resident on an equal per meter basis, up to the original buy in price, *before* I take a single linden from the sale for myself.
***** REVISION OF COVENANT *****
Should need arise, I retain the right to revise the contents of this Covenant at any time. Ten days notice will be given for acceptance and compliance changes by residents as needed unless Linden Lab TOS and/or publicized policy forces an immediate change outside the realm of my control. Should any resident choose to not accept the revised covenant, or be unable to do so based on Linden Lab changes to terms of service or publicized policy, the rules above regarding Voluntary Termination by Resident apply.
***** DISCRETIONARY POWERS *****
I reserve the right to return to owner any object(s) in violation of Linden Lab TOS/publicized policy or the Tuscany Island Covenant or that I deem offensive or intrusive. I will not, however, ever return things without what I deem due cause and will always attempt to seek out the owner prior to taking this action if possible.
I reserve the right to refuse sale to any person or persons. I further reserve the right to buy out and remove any resident without prejudice should unforeseen circumstances arise that threaten the peace and prosperity of the sim after due consideration and consultations with experienced peers.
I reserve the right to veto the placement of any building or landscaping (residential or commercial) that is not in keeping with the overall aesthetics of any sim.
The contract terminates automatically (with no entitlement for a refund) if you violate the rules in this document or the Second Life Terms of Service.
All negotiations with other residents regarding price and other proceedings are of no relevance to Tuscany Island and must be dealt with on your own.
Should some officially announced, unannounced or unforeseeable event lead to a state where the sim(s) which contain the parcels that you have paid for, are inaccessible to you, we will see that access is restored as fast as possible. We can not accept any responsibility for times of inaccessibility caused by third parties (i.e. other residents or Linden Labs).
We will proceed with all due speed (and caution) to remove the causes for the state of inaccessibility, should it be in our power to do so. There will be no refunds for times of inaccessibility with the sole exception of cases, where Linden Labs will reimburse us, Tuscany Island, for a longer period of inaccessibility.
***** RENT TO OWN *****
We offer a rent to own option on all lands. If you wish to buy but cannot pay all up front we will build the tier into you rental box. The tier will be based on no more than a 12 month cycle. If you wish to Rent to own pay the tier box for the first month tier and contact Melody Regnet for rent to own option. If you pay the box and do not buy the land OR IM Melody Regent within 24 hours you will be evicted from the lands and no refund offered.
***** SUPPORT STAFF *****
If you are having a problem, have a question or need some assistance, please feel free to contact our support through any of the following means.
In world support account:
Melody Regent - Owner
Motor Loon - Manager
Sunday Ayres - Customer Support
Tuscana Clary - Finance Manager
The BEST way to reach us is via IM or the group channel. We all get IM’s off world and can come in when needed. You are also free to Email pookieandpunkie@hotmail.com or IM Melody on Skype (do not call) okie_melody
Silent owners and contacted ONLY incase of a dire emergency
Saffia Widdershines
Everett Streeter
***** FINAL NOTE *****
I will endeavor always to be fair with all residents and guests, however, please remember final decisions on all issues within the Tuscany Island rests on my shoulders. All choices and decisions will be for the good of the community as a whole.
Melody Regent
Tuscany Island
Sim owner references are available upon request.
Venice Island
Sim Factory