I lost my house when my wife broke both of her legs. Needless to say. RL is more important then IG.
It happened just before 4.0 lanched. She was in a hopital bed for over 7 months as our home as too many stairs for her to come home.
I logged on and got content done and got 2 jobs to level 70. But the RP side of our play was really not there as that is something we do together.
With her in the hopital I didn't go to my house. I to never got an email.
When she finally logged on she noticed right away it was gone.

Gladly when they added more housing we finally got a new home.

When we got the new house. We both put events in our cell phones to goto the house every 2 weeks just incase RL happens.