Goblin's view on property

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 176545

---  "Bruce Alan Wilson" <bawilson at ...> wrote:
>
> In real estate in the Muggle world there are similar
> concepts.
> 
> If I sell you a life interest in a certain piece of 
> land, then when you die it goes back to me, or if I 
> am dead myself by then to my heirs; I (or my heirs)
> don't have to pay your estate back.  You could sell 
> it to a third party, .... for you would only have 
> been able to sell YOUR LIFE INTEREST in the property.
> 
> Now, this does not work with chattels, only with land,
> under our laws, but apparently under goblin law it 
> does.
> 
> Bruce Alan Wilson

bboyminn:

Off on a tangent as usual. Periodically I look at 
real estate in London; you know, in case I win the
lottery, and much to my surprise, I found that when
you buy a flat in London, you do not actually buy
a flat in London.

Most of the real estate I've seen is sold with a 99
year lease, or the remaining balance of an original
99 year lease. THIS is a completely foreign concept 
to USA real estate buyers. To us, when you buy
property, you own it forever; assume you don't default
in some way. 

As to what happens at the end of 99 years, I'm not
sure. Do you have the option to renew? Is the price
for renewal cheaper than an outright 99 year lease? 
So many mysteries, so little time.

Of course, even in the USA there are some exceptions.
Frequently odd or unusual real estate deals are struck.
For example, a person my live on the land for the rest
of their natural life, at which time, by mutual 
agreement, the land will revert to the city, county,
or state to be used as a historic site or as park land. 

Occasionally, these plots of land and buildings will
be sold for $1.00. It is, in a sense, a means of donating
the land to the 'people'. 

But still, the 99 year lease goes very much against my
grain as an American. I have trouble spending many 
hundreds of thousands of pounds on something that, 
ultimately, I can't actually own. 

But this merely illustrates a point a made earlier. The
Goblins continue to sell to wizards without resolving
the nature of the transaction. They know full well the
conditions that wizard set to transactions like this,
and by continuing to sell, the Goblins are accepting
the terms of an unspoken but commonly understood 
contract. By accepting the terms, they have, in effect,
give up all future claims.

Like I said, off on a tangent again.

Steve/bboyminn