House was wrongly flagged for auto-demolition.

[KawaKagon]

About 5 days ago my house was demolished (April 2nd 2023), which confused me as I distinctly remembering entering my home (entering the house itself, more than just stepping on the property) a week prior. I've been in touch with "GM's" through email support since then, which as devolved into getting the same auto-responses again and again with no regard to questions or additional information I supply. I've checked in game as well, no changes or communication.

EDIT: To clarify a few things, I am NOT making this post as a tenant of the estate, but rather the actual owner. I didn't enter the home on an alt, but rather my main character. No I am not making this to dodge the auto-demolition system as people have just assumed (although I don't blame them fully since I'm sure there's plenty of that going around the forums.) I do in fact use my home for social meetings or just to have a place to relax in and decorate to unwind after raiding. I don't own the house as a status symbol or some kind of prestige token.

[ICountFrom0]

The help info is wrong, the key word is "use", just entering isn't enough, you have to move an object, use an object, do a thing, interact with a retainer, or otherwise cause the server to notice you exist. It's an intentional trap to make more houses available faster.

GM's won't admit this to you, that's why your in a loop with them.

[NekoMataMata]

The help info is wrong, the key word is "use", just entering isn't enough, you have to move an object, use an object, do a thing, interact with a retainer, or otherwise cause the server to notice you exist. It's an intentional trap to make more houses available faster.

GM's won't admit this to you, that's why your in a loop with them.

I interact with my retainer and the crystal bell all the time in my house but reading this still scared me.

[LaylaTsarra]

I interact with my retainer and the crystal bell all the time in my house but reading this still scared me.

I always interact with a retainer bell or an NPC (mender etc) to be sure not chancing entering alone doesn't work. Read this too many times on the forum by people who seem to have been affected by entering not working.

Be pretty hard to get the house back especially if it's been sold and how does one prove they entered the house?

[Fawkes]

The help info is wrong, the key word is "use", just entering isn't enough, you have to move an object, use an object, do a thing, interact with a retainer, or otherwise cause the server to notice you exist. It's an intentional trap to make more houses available faster.

GM's won't admit this to you, that's why your in a loop with them.

I had my house flagged once after a vacation, and just entering it was enough to reset the demolition timer.

[TomsYoungerBro]

The help info is wrong, the key word is "use", just entering isn't enough, you have to move an object, use an object, do a thing, interact with a retainer, or otherwise cause the server to notice you exist. It's an intentional trap to make more houses available faster.

GM's won't admit this to you, that's why your in a loop with them.

Not sure why you are getting upvoted, as this would insinuate square is flat out lying in their official documentation. Their verbaige always says to "enter" the house, and the auto demolition cancelled message says "Auto-demolition cancelled by owner arrival". The server notices you exist...when you enter the instance? Cmon

[Ravenblade1979]

The help info is wrong, the key word is "use", just entering isn't enough, you have to move an object, use an object, do a thing, interact with a retainer, or otherwise cause the server to notice you exist. It's an intentional trap to make more houses available faster.

GM's won't admit this to you, that's why your in a loop with them.

your info is dead wrong and not sure why people liked what you said. you literally only need to enter your private house to reset the counter. same if you are a fc leader to reset that timer so you don't lose it to the next rank.

[Stormpeaks]

your info is dead wrong and not sure why people liked what you said. you literally only need to enter your private house to reset the counter. same if you are a fc leader to reset that timer so you don't lose it to the next rank.

You are actually right, I cancelled auto demo on my alt a few days ago, all I had to do was enter the house, and I had the cancel auto message pop up in my chat box.

You dont have to interact with anything, I didnt even touch any item in the house, just went in tp'd right away.

[Rongway]

your info is dead wrong and not sure why people liked what you said. you literally only need to enter your private house to reset the counter. same if you are a fc leader to reset that timer so you don't lose it to the next rank.

In re: FC houses, that's not how they work. The FC leader doesn't own the house; the FC does. As such, any FC member zoning into the housing interior will reset the demo timer. The demo timer on houses does not have anything to do with the rank hierarchy.

There is a separate master abandonment timer that is completely independent of the housing demo timer. Expiration of the master abandonment timer will pass company master to someone who has logged in recently. The master abandonment timer will reset when the FC master logs in.

[Jojoya]

your info is dead wrong and not sure why people liked what you said. you literally only need to enter your private house to reset the counter. same if you are a fc leader to reset that timer so you don't lose it to the next rank.

Except that isn't always enough as i know from personal experience as a tenant on a friend's house. There is something in the system so owner's entry into the house isn't always registered. In the case of my friend's house, I watched him go inside it and the demo timer did not reset. It wasn't until he interacted with the Mender he had inside that the pending demo cleared from both of our timers.

Considering I don't know anyone who only enters their completely empty house once every 45 days, I've got no comparison point to say "yes, entry only works for some but others also need to interact". But I can say that at least for some, they need to interact with something in the interior on occasion.

It could be a random bug so that the more often someone enters their house, the less likely they are to experience it. On the other hand, most players have at least a Summoning Bell inside for convenience and are likely to use it at least once a month.

Better safe than sorry.

I had this happen too. Lost my Medium house in the Goblet, despite having entered it prior to the demolish and contacting support just gave me the same auto responses for about a week before I just cut my losses.
Terrible service

Sorry you lost the house. I agree that a better response from support would be nice.

But in all honesty, what do you expect them to do as compensation? They can't just give the former owner the house back, especially if it's already been purchased by another player. At best they might be able to refund the last 20% of the plot price but that still leaves you without a house.

I'm not so sure that's true. When I've got the warning my house, it has reset by simply entering my house.

I think it legitimately is an infrequent random bug but unless a player is entering their house intentionally to reset the demo timer after the notification appears, they're not going to think to look for the reset message.

■Deactivating the Automatic Removal
Preparations for the automatic removal will be deactivated if at least one member of a free company accesses the free company estate, or if the owner of a private estate enters their house at least once before the Removal Date.
To confirm whether the automatic removal status has been deactivated, please go to the “Timers” interface section in-game. If the “Preparing for automatic removal” status has disappeared, this will indicate that the deactivation was successful.

*Please note that the automatic removal status will not be deactivated if a housemate through the house-sharing feature enters a private estate instead of the actual owner.

Thats from the email

Soon as you enter you get a red text aborted message. Ive done it apparently 8 times thats once a year so I'm due soon

That makes it sound like SE is aware that entering itself doesn't always deactivate the pending demolition and that the player should confirm it happened.

What it is missing is instruction on what to do if the Estate Timer shows the house still pending demolition after entering.

The next question is whether the player even checks the email associated with their account. A lot of players don't when they use a separate email for gaming accounts. If they don't check their email and they don't check the Estate Timers in game, they may not know their house is pending demolition and that they should be checking for the message after entering.