Important Rules
Contents
Important house rules
There are a number of important rules that you, as a homeowner, should be aware of. If you are unaware of these rules, you could be inconvenienced or at worst lose your home!
The '7 day waiting period'
You can buy or place a house only once every 7 days on your account, regardless of the character or shard used to acquire the house.
This 7-day waiting period starts from the moment you acquire a house through trade or by placing one. During this period you will not be able to place another house, or receive another house in trade. You will be informed of this fact when you try to receive a house in trade or place one.
The following actions are not subject to the waiting period, nor do they start or reset the waiting period timer:
- selling a house
- demolishing a house
- changing a pre-built house into a customizable plot
You can verify if and how long you'll have to wait until you can acquire a house again, by using the House Placing Tool: the message shown in the image above will appear.
Note that the 7 day waiting period is supposed to apply only when you already have a house; if you place a house and then demolish it, you should be able to place a new one right away, without having to wait. I emphasized 'supposed to' because at the time of writing, there is a bug that makes you have to wait out the 7 days, even if you have no houses on your account whatsoever.
5 house per account holder
- Definition of an account holder = the one or two accounts maximum per IP.
- See UO Roleplay Specific Housing Guidelines.
Condemned Houses
A condemned house is a house that will decay and fall down after 5 days. If a house is condemned, this fact will be noted on the house menu. (See the image on the right)
Why do houses go condemned?
- If you own a house on any shard, placing or buying another house will condemn your existing one. You can only have one house per account. You can safely use the house placement tool to check spots and see if they'll fit a house, as long as you do not actually confirm that you want to place a house.
- If your account goes inactive, your house(s) on it will be condemned after a 90-day grace period.
Note that if you get rid of all other houses except the condemned one, it will no longer become un-condemned again automatically after shard maintenance in the morning, like it used to before the release of Age of Shadows! The only way to un-condemn a house is to sell or give the house away to someone else, or demolishing and re-building it (but be careful of the 7-day waiting period!).
Improperly Placed Houses
The house menu shows whether your house is properly or improperly placed. If your house is improperly placed, it simply means that it violates the rules for house placement in some way. Since these rules change from time to time, it is possible that a house goes from properly placed to improperly placed. Also, if your neighbor turns a pre-built house into a customizable plot, your house and his may turn into improperly placed ones, under certain conditions.
There are a few minor drawbacks to having an improperly placed house:
- if you demolish an improperly placed house (for example: to try and place a bigger plot), you will not be able to re-place the same house in that location.
- some players will pay less for a house that is improperly placed.
Houses placed inside Caves or Dungeons
While it may be possible in some locations to place a house in a cave or a dungeon. It is forbidden and your house will either be moved out of said areas or will be deleted. Do Not Place a house in a Cave or a Dungeon. If a house is moved or deleted by staff we will not replace the cost of the structure or any items lost in said structure.
