Thread: Housing FAQ

Originally Posted by PrairieDog

Just to clarify, the unlock cost is equal to 2x the monthly maintenance fee, no matter how long the house is locked, is that correct? In other words, if my monthly maintenance fee is 165s and my house gets locked, the unlocking fee is a flat 330s, whether the house is locked for 6 months or only for 1 day. Right?

I'm still waiting for an answer to this question. Does anybody know?

No one seems to know. Anyone want to let their house go to find out, or already done so, that can comment?

That is correct. 2x the fee to unlock regardless of time passed.

just re-checking

is it still one house per account or have they done the sensible thing yet and made it one house per server yet?

Originally Posted by windowyn

just re-checking

is it still one house per account or have they done the sensible thing yet and made it one house per server yet?

It always has been one house per account per server. At least since they added housing it has been...

I understand that you get a travel skill for your main character and that alts might get it too at some later date...

Does anyone know if/when the travel skill will be available for alts? It's the only thing preventing me from buying a home...

Originally Posted by More

I understand that you get a travel skill for your main character and that alts might get it too at some later date...

Does anyone know if/when the travel skill will be available for alts? It's the only thing preventing me from buying a home...

It's already there. Alts get the "map to personal house" skill as soon as they're rolled if your main has a house already.

Originally Posted by Hayoo

That is correct. 2x the fee to unlock regardless of time passed.

Good to know. With all the server stability woes... bad LI system... no new raid ... I'm going to take a break from this game for a long while. Won't return unless they have a better end-game than grinding ixp for LIs that I'll never be happy with.

Started playing EQ2 and all I can say is that their decorating system is phenomenal. Place any item nearly anywhere. No grid system or limiting hooks. Pure free-form placement. Very awesome. Turbine has no further to look for how to upgrade their housing ... just duplicate what EQ2 has.

Happy hooking everyone! :P

Originally Posted by bmathias

Started playing EQ2 and all I can say is that their decorating system is phenomenal. Place any item nearly anywhere. No grid system or limiting hooks. Pure free-form placement. Very awesome. Turbine has no further to look for how to upgrade their housing ... just duplicate what EQ2 has.

Lately I've been very tempted to play EQ2, mainly for the amazing housing system they've got. The main thing keeping me from it is the game's graphics are pretty weak. If LotRO had an EQ2/SWG-like housing setup, it could easily lay claim to best MMO housing in the market.

It took me a long while to find a source, but, in case someone wants to include it in the FAQ, I found some of the LotRO themes on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...2AEF4A4CA4D4C6

Im thinking of moving my house to a different zone. If i were to abandon my house without taking anything out of my current house would all my stuff go to my escrow?

Originally Posted by Elthor

Im thinking of moving my house to a different zone. If i were to abandon my house without taking anything out of my current house would all my stuff go to my escrow?

Yes. [10 chars]

Not sure if this was brought up, plus I really do not want to go through 9 pages, but if someone does not pay upkeep, how long can the house remain locked, and does the house go back up for sale after a certain lengh of time. I know there are houses in my neighborhood that have been locked for about a year. I have several kin members that are interested in buying houses in the same street I am at and other kin members. If the house is locked due to lack of up-keep, should it "forclose" and go back on the market?

Originally Posted by spieg

Not sure if this was brought up, plus I really do not want to go through 9 pages, but if someone does not pay upkeep, how long can the house remain locked, and does the house go back up for sale after a certain lengh of time. I know there are houses in my neighborhood that have been locked for about a year. I have several kin members that are interested in buying houses in the same street I am at and other kin members. If the house is locked due to lack of up-keep, should it "forclose" and go back on the market?

In the past, unpaid house-upkeep would eventually force the house back onto the market. This is no longer the case. Today, a house now stays locked indefinitely until the owner pays back the upkeep or voluntarily abandons it.

Thank you. I guess I will try to contact them. I know one of them have left the game, so I will not be able to contact that person.

once a house is abandoned.. when is it back on the market for someone else to buy??

It appears as though a Husband and a Wife can not hold a house in "common." Perhaps Turbine would like to implement an option for owning a house as a tenancy in common or jointly with right of survivorship. This way each spouse would have all the rights and responsibilities co-equally. However, this creates the need for a new "Vocation": The Attorney Vocation. The attorney would be able to nullify all things the notary is used for and perform divorces, as well as sue for breaches of contract under the trade system or for breeches in etiquette or negligence in fellowing. For example a tier 5 attorney would have a 75% chance of beating a tier 3 attorney in an action seeking restitution for a repair bill that Hunter A caused due to sending a heartseeker too early in a fight, resulting in a wipe. Now with housing, a tier 6 attorney might be able to get the wife to retain the home for a buyout fee and husband to pay a weekly maintenance fee to his wife, if all the husband could afford was a tier two attorney. There would be an attorney guild (please call it the Bar) and great titles, like supreme master attorney. Talk about Role Playing. Housing districts could get office space for this new vocation as well. However, anyone who has seen the bridge in Kazah-Dum knows that such a class is not in the lore (handrails---anyone).

Originally Posted by Penter-Kar

It always has been one house per account per server. At least since they added housing it has been...

I just want to confirm that it is one personal house per account per server. A friend of mine whom I play with on Brandywine has a personal house on Silverlode and just yesterday she bought a personal house on Brandywine.

It was always my understanding that if you owned both a house and a kinship hall in the same neighborhood that discounts stacked?
For example if I own Shire Kinship Hall and Shire Home I should expect a 35% discount on repair bills. Is this still accurate?

Originally Posted by Nefarym

It was always my understanding that if you owned both a house and a kinship hall in the same neighborhood that discounts stacked?
For example if I own Shire Kinship Hall and Shire Home I should expect a 35% discount on repair bills. Is this still accurate?

Discounts do not add. You get whichever discount is higher.

I don't see this question being ask.. so I will.


If your main char has a Kinship house, does your ALT have access to it, if he's not part of the Kinship?

Does a person get to keep his kinship house if his kinship disbanded or he's no longer the leader of the kinship?

There is no such thing as a "main" character. The server treats all characters equally. It has no knowledge of how or what you use a particular character for. The Kin Leader controls the Kin House and has to set permissions for who can do what. If the Kinship disbands the Kin House is put back on the market for sale. If someone else becomes the Kin Leader, then the new Kin Leader will control the Kin House. For more information, see the LOTRO Housing FAQs.

And to answer your specific question, anyone can gain access to any part of your Kinship house if you give them permission to do so. So if your main owns a Kinship house as the Kinship leader, he can grant special permission to your ALTs to access chests, decorations, etc. The only thing your alts will NOT have is the "travel to kinhouse" skill (unless you put them into the Kinship).

Originally Posted by Ainuril

And to answer your specific question, anyone can gain access to any part of your Kinship house if you give them permission to do so. So if your main owns a Kinship house as the Kinship leader, he can grant special permission to your ALTs to access chests, decorations, etc. The only thing your alts will NOT have is the "travel to kinhouse" skill (unless you put them into the Kinship).

Non-kinship members can be given Kin House permissions same as others can be given permissions to a personal house, and the same restrictions apply. A non-kinship member will not get the travel to kinhouse skill, they do not get the vendor discount, they cannot use the mailbox, etc.

Thanks for the info.. and this is the best FAQ so far..that I found.

In your FAQ you said a person that is a Kin leader could also have a Personal house? I read on the forum that you can't. So i'm confuse which one is correct.

also, I've research everywhere.. so far no one have the info on Number of Hooks on Kins houses..are they different from one address to another? Maybe that explain the house prices differences. How many Enormous and Huge Yard hook are there per kin housing?

Thanks in advance.

The leader of a Kinship can have the Kinship house AND a personal house (large or small). The Kinship house does not technically belong to him/her, but to his/her entire Kinship. I have never heard someone say that a character could not own both a Kinship house and a regular house. I welcome correction if I am incorrect.

You can definitely have both a kin house (as leader of the kin) and a personal house since as Maelos said, it doesn't really belong to the individual, it belongs to the kin. If the kin leader deletes his or her toon, the leadership of the kin goes to the successor, and the kin does not get deleted, nor does it lose it's kin house.

As far as the differences in prices of the various kin houses, I believe it relates to the location/desirability rather than the number of hooks. The houses themselves are standardized inside -- same floor plan, same hooks. Some are just closer to the entrance/vault, have bigger-looking yards (same number of hooks though), or have better views.

The difference in cost does indeed come down to location, location, location. All houses of a type (standard, deluxe, kinship) have the same floor plans, and same number of hooks (interior/exterior). The only difference is where the exterior hooks are located, which comes down to the lot the house is on. Which again is the location. You pay more for a better view, bigger lot, etc.

Each account is limited to having one "personal" house on each server. A personal house is either the standard or deluxe house. The kinship house belongs to the kinship, not the character. The kin leader only one authorized to buy/abandon a kinship house, and has the final say in permissions. When leadership changes, the new kin leader has control of the kinship house. You are not limited to how many kinship houses an account can control.

So, theoretically, if you have nine characters that are in nine different kinships, and each one is the leader of the kinship, your one account can control nine different kinship houses, plus your personal house. Furthermore, since this is on a per server basis, you could have this occur on all 11 servers.

You can look through the Homestead section of the Lorebook to find out how many hooks a location has. Here are examples for the number of hooks/chests that a standard, deluxe, and kinship house has.

thanks for all the replies.

I got an idea what i'm going to do.

the Hooks information I was looking for was more specific. As in, How many ENORMOUS Yard Hooks is there in a Kinhousing. How many HUGH yard Hooks are there?

THanks again.

I have a question. We had two accounts in our household: One for me and one for my son and we would adventure together. He now has other interests , and I have suspended his account. His house is right next to mine.

I have full permissions on the house for all of my toons, and have kept the upkeep on the house paid up. Can I use this suspended house for storage, or is this a loophole in the LotRO housing strategy? What happens to a house if an account is no longer active because they're not paying Turbine the fees to keep playing?

Eo of Elendimir

Originally Posted by Legodisney

I have a question. We had two accounts in our household: One for me and one for my son and we would adventure together. He now has other interests , and I have suspended his account. His house is right next to mine.

I have full permissions on the house for all of my toons, and have kept the upkeep on the house paid up. Can I use this suspended house for storage, or is this a loophole in the LotRO housing strategy? What happens to a house if an account is no longer active because they're not paying Turbine the fees to keep playing?

Eo of Elendimir

As long as someone's paying the rent, the house can still be used, at least in my experience. And if you have all permissions, you can use the storage of the house.

If you have a kin and a kin house, if you change the name of the kin does it affect your house other than who it is owned by?

Originally Posted by Aelerria

If you have a kin and a kin house, if you change the name of the kin does it affect your house other than who it is owned by?

Nope. Your kin house will now proudly display the rebranded name of your kin. So much better than real life. You do not have to buy new signs and pay to have them installed.

I searched through this thread (and a few other guides) and one piece of info seems to be missing... just how much IS the neighborhood vendor discount for owning a house, deluxe house or kinship house?

Originally Posted by Domine

I searched through this thread (and a few other guides) and one piece of info seems to be missing... just how much IS the neighborhood vendor discount for owning a house, deluxe house or kinship house?

Standard house - 10%
Kinship house - !5%
Deluxe house - 20%

No stacking. You get the largest.

One of my accounts I have a standard home in the kinship racial housing complex. Different neighborhood. I get 15%.

My other account has a deluxe home in the kinship racial housing complex. Different neighborhood. I get 20%.

All three homes are in Duillond - elf houses. In three different neighborhoods or instances. Both of my homes are near the vault, vendors and exit.

Is the fact that your alts (the other characters on your account that didn't "buy" the house) won't get the return to house skill still true even today?

I seem to have heard otherwise... or maybe people were implying otherwise. But I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by Cacheelma

Is the fact that your alts (the other characters on your account that didn't "buy" the house) won't get the return to house skill still true even today?

I seem to have heard otherwise... or maybe people were implying otherwise. But I could be wrong.

All your alts get the return to house skill now.

I found a different house that I really want. Is it possible to give up the house i currently have in order to get the other house?

Originally Posted by Nindolvoth

I found a different house that I really want. Is it possible to give up the house i currently have in order to get the other house?

Yes! If you have owned the house you want to get rid of for 24 hours or more, you may abandon it and purchase another house immediately. They just make you wait 24 hours after purchasing a house, to purchase another one. So once you buy the new one, if you wanted a different one after that you wouldn't be able to purchase another one for 24 hours.

Originally Posted by Alohomora

Yes! If you have owned the house you want to get rid of for 24 hours or more, you may abandon it and purchase another house immediately. They just make you wait 24 hours after purchasing a house, to purchase another one. So once you buy the new one, if you wanted a different one after that you wouldn't be able to purchase another one for 24 hours.

How do you abandon a house?