Part One: Tier Collection
Since 2011, CDS has used scripted rental systems to collect tier.
- When a person first purchases a CDS land parcel, they will receive the first 30 days of tier on that parcel which will be given by an Estate Manager. Following the first month of ownership, citizens pay tier via the Tier Payment Unit assigned to their parcel. They have the option to pay for one or many months at a time. Citizens must pay tier – via the tier collection unit– on a parcel that lists them as the owner in the land tool and have it in good standing to maintain citizenship.
- A landowner may request a refund from an Estate Manager when selling or abandoning a parcel.
- The Executive shall employ the following procedures for tier collection, reclaiming parcels under ordinary circumstances and clearing (resetting) the tier collection units.
- Parcel abandoned from the land tool – Executive clears the tier collection. A landowner may request a refund from an Estate Manager when selling or abandoning a parcel. The parcel is reset for sale.
- The Tier Collection Units shall be set to use the notice functions that alert landowners of the expiration of their tier in advance of due date, and the days remaining until they are due. The unit also announces numbers of days overdue. Landowners are expected to be in world to receive such notices and/or have provided LL with an email address allowing them to receive IMs while offline. Landowners are expected to set preferences to receive IMs when off line. Landowners who do not make provision to receive IMs in email, nor provide an email to the Executive, are still required to pay tier in a timely manner. Landowners who disable the reminder notices are expected to track when payments are due themselves and keep their tier up to date.
The Chancellor is encouraged [to] maintain a list of citizens with the email addresses voluntarily provided by citizens on a no-modify notecard with an explicit request to notify them by the provided email address. “<date>: To the Chancellor: please use the following email address if you need to contact me about tier.”
Upon leaving office, the outgoing Chancellor will transfer that list to the incoming Chancellor. - The Estate Owner should include the following reclamation language in the CDS Covenant land tool: “The right to vote and stand for election is reserved for citizens in good standing, i.e. are current with tier.
Part Two: (Timing) When Tier Expires
- Beginning three days before tier expires, the tier collection unit is supposed to begin sending IMs to the parcel owner.
- Within 7 days of being in arrears:
– The remaining time shows up on the tier collection system website, available to all Rental Managers.
– The Executive notifies citizens (via IM, notecard, email) of impending land reclamation at 14 days of delinquency and loss of voting rights once tier expires. Refer to CDSL 16-03, Item 2 regarding potential loss of voting rights. - Once tier runs out:
– Tier collection unit continues to send IMs until the object is reset, unless the notices have been disabled by the citizen.
– The Executive notifies citizens (via IM, notecard, email) to the (now probationary) citizen.
– The 14 day time period begins in which the citizen can reclaim their parcel by paying all owed amounts. (Notification by IM, notecard and email – or IM when the citizen is not logged in.)
– The Executive sends a final notice to errant landowner notifying them when the land will be reclaimed and their items returned. - In addition to the census, CDS has the right to make public the lists of provisional citizens from time to time, as reasonably needed for its administration of government. The Treasurer creates the list, with provisional citizens noted at the bottom. The Executive posts it to the Forum using the subject line “Census, (month, day, year).” Treasurer adds the lists to the Praetorium census dispenser. Additionally, the Executive posts a notice to CDS group, announcing the publication of the list and it’s availability via the Forum or the Census Dispenser at the Praetorium
During times of elections or by-elections the executive shall inform the scientific council about citizens who are on the census lists but have lost their citizenship afterwards due to giving up their last parcel or having gotten into arrear with tier payments. - At fourteen days overdue, if the landowner has failed to pay the full amount outstanding and unless absent due to a declaration of ‘special circumstances.’ then the Executive can reclaim the parcel. Objects on the parcel can be returned to the landowner and the parcels set for sale unless there are plans to temporarily take it off the market to redevelop.
Part Three: Private Sales
For parcel sales to be complete, the new buyer’s name must appear both in the Land and Tier Collection Unit. If the seller neglects to clear their name from the Tier Collection Unit, the executive clears the seller’s name so the new parcel owner can pay tier. If purchased through a private land sale, the purchaser does not receive 30 days of tier.
Part Four: Reclamation – Special Circumstances
From time to time, real life circumstances – either personal or technical – prevent a citizen from keeping current with tier (coming in-world and paying). On the ‘in-world’ side, Tier Collection Units sometime fail to send proper notification; IMs are sometimes capped per LL and may prevent a citizen from receiving email. We refer to these as ‘special circumstances.’
In the event of special circumstances either before or after reclamation – where the Citizen does not intend to let tier lapse – the Citizen, members of a group to which the parcel is assigned, friends of the citizen, the community at large, and the Executive might:
– offer to pay tier (parcel owner or partner of)
– contact the parcel owner
– notify the Executive of special circumstances
– notify the community of special circumstances and call for help
– petition the SC for relief
Citizens whose circumstances may require it can recruit someone to cover their tier. Note, tier payments made by someone other than the landowner does not confer citizenship. Repeated payment by someone other than the landowner can result in status change to ‘provisional’ and put voting rights in jeopardy.
This law repeals and replaces CDSL 13-03, any provisions of prior CDS laws (including CDSL 13-03) that specify land reclamation or rent payment methods, to the extent that they contradict the explicit terms of this law.
Enacted 26 October 2014
Changes and amendments made to CDSL 21-05 passed by the RA on August13, 2018