Yes or No, and Explain, Please.

[NomadicDragon]

Is house buying/selling in a the context of normal gameplay a punishable offense? Not in the context of land barons(whom I know are a major contributor to this whole problem), but for those of us that MIGHT buy/sell one or two houses in our entire FF14 career. I was hit for a violate of the User Agreement, but the listed 3.2 and 2.6 do not fit, I was not disrupting the client, data, connection, SE software, or SE hardware, not was I using FF14 to commit fraud, defamation, or gambling. I know 3.6 refers to using the game to commit these crimes since casinos are gambling but since they are ingame only they are not a violation. Who do I talk to in order to get this mark against my otherwise good record removed? Who in authority over this matter going to answer these questions once and for all for myself but most importantly the entire fanbase?

[LordLucavi]

It has been mentioned before that selling houses is a violation of the terms and conditions. I'm not sure where in the t/c it says so though, but there was a recent forum post about it. I think it's due to the whole buy a place, then sell it for gil, then the person has to pay more gil to buy the plot, then more for the housing permit, thus encouraging RMT activity. I think it'll ease up if they fix the housing issue.

[Canadane]

You can get 80% of your plot investment back if it's demolished. This is what SE has deemed acceptable.
They aren't products to be used to flip a profit.

[Judah_Brandt]

It's because you aren't selling anything. You're performing an unprotected transaction. There is no guarantee that a third party couldn't run up and just buy the house right after you've taken the Gil. There are also people abusing the system, unfortunately regardless of how poor a system we perceive it to be, you're still committing the same violation as those who abuse it. One time or fifty, it makes no difference. Waiting the 45 days for the plot to demolish and return your Gil and furniture is the only protected way of return. Nothing is transferred between you and the person you're taking Gil from, thus you are not selling anything. It's ultimately a bribe to demolish your house and vacate, while the other player must actually go purchase the plot from the game directly, and then pay to have the house constructed on said plot.

[NomadicDragon]

LordLucavi, I've heard, but there is nothing in the UA that can be applied to house selling. I'm ok with them adding a clear one, for OR against housing sales. EU GMs seem to think house selling even in PF is OK, but NA GMs are adamant against it.

Canadane, it might come to that. :\ I bought the house from a player...they probably flipped the lot, but since I didn't have the time to camp on Christmas I'm fine with trading my gathering/crafting gil. Market systems rock.

Judah_Brandt, that's true of everything, sadly. My 99 stack of Blue Ooids isn't mine, nor is the gil I get when I sell them on the market board. Nowhere is housing sales disallowed, and it's true no guarantees are made. Let the players have that risk, or support the market by implementing systems, or explicitly ban it!

Please, Devs, be explicit on this, I'm down with whatever you decide! I'll keep the mark on my account against me if it'll mean the policy is clear and correctly followed by all GMs!

[Judah_Brandt]

It isn't though, because you're listing the item on the market board for direct purchase, as in they receive the items in exchange for the Gil. The transaction can not be tampered with. If there was some form of Market Board for housing, then that would be fine, but there isn't and the workaround is heavily exploited.

[Valkyrie-Amber]

yep because there is no system implemented to sell a house so I say just the motion is bad. basicly if you buy a house from someone what your really spending that gil on is nothing cause you still have to rebuy the plot after.

[MistakeNot]

It's because you aren't selling anything. You're performing an unprotected transaction. There is no guarantee that a third party couldn't run up and just buy the house right after you've taken the Gil.

So? There is no rule against doing that kind of transaction.

Reading through the official rules there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING in them that would indicate to any reasonable person that selling a house for Gil would violate any of the rules.

[Judah_Brandt]

All right. So I say I'm selling you a house. You give me 40 million Gil. I walk away. You're now out 40 million Gil. Is that wrong? Because there's nothing in the official rules saying I can't do that. Hiding behind "It didn't EXACTLY say I can't do something" is a poor argument. You won't agree, however, so there really isn't a point to carrying this conversation further.

[Sida]

As someone stated, taking money just for the act of relinquishing the plot is just a bribe for the person to do so. It's sorts similar to ask money of not killing a hunt target before everyone is around, just a bribe to act in certain way. Regardless if you actually release the plot or not there is no quarantee from your part that the person who paid it will get it (as someone said, some third party could snatch it in between, there was a case that spilled overy on forum of that quite some time ago) so you can't actually sell the plot and if you advertise it that way it indeed is a fraud, you are saying you are selling them something you can't technically sell. Since America is the promised land of following the text of law instead of the spirit of it, as the saying goes, it's not hard to see they take even stronger hand at this discrepancy in advertising falsely. In their way to take things, it's not the responsibility of the buyer to require any other knowledge than what the seller side of a trade says, and if they had not prepared with the extra gil over the price you stated they indeed would be left hanging as propably someone who sees an empty plots picks it up while they are sorting the situation they were dropped into by getting false I formation from someone who stated they are -selling- the plot for certain sum.

Then again, if want to be ok with 'its not separately declined in tos' I know a bridge I could sell you. Sturdy stone bridge even, fancy view too.

TL/DR you're committing a fraud the moment you claim you're selling the plot, instead of stating you're selling the release of the plot to be bought from the game.