|  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.
 One
House per Account
Unlike the old days, you are allowed to own and keep only
one house per account. This rule is enforced across
all shards; if you play on multiple shards, you will have
to choose on which one to build your home as you can have
only one. This one home is called your primary house.
You can obtain a second house on your account temporarily,
but this will condemn any other house(s)
you have on the same account,even those on other shards! You
will have to sell or demolish these condemned houses, before
they decay and fall
down. You are allowed to keep the newly acquired house of
course.
Note that people who had more than one house on their account
when this rule came into effect are exempt from this rule,
with some limitations (see Grandfathered
Houses)
 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 neighbour turns
a pre-build 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.
 Grandfathered
Houses
If you own multiple houses from before the moment when the
1-house-per-account rule came into effect, all your houses
will be grandfathered. The house
menu will name them as such.
You are allowed to keep all your grandfathered houses, but
they must be 'refreshed' regularly or they will decay
and fall down. It takes about 11 days for a house to collapse,
counting from the last time it was refreshed. You refresh
a house by opening one of its doors.
When you perform one of the following actions, you will forfeit
the privilege of owning multiple houses on your account:
- acquiring a new house through trade or placing. This will
condemn all your other houses;
- designating one of your homes to be your primary house,
through the house menu. This
will condemn all your other houses.
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