[Eighty Swords]

Here's an alternative solution:

Add a timer to all the houses that check to see how long it has been since the house has been used (door opened or sign used by the owner/co-owner/friend). Have a command in-game for GMs to use that will show houses or statics that haven't been used in 6 months. GMs can see those houses, then go to the location to check it out. If the house is a worthless house (or static) or the player has quit, then the GM can delete it and put a deed or check in the player's bank box (you could add a command for that also.)

I think that a case-by-case basis is going to be the best bet. Implement that timer, then wait 6 months to see which houses still haven't been used and start deleting houses and opening up statics.

The other benefit is that you have clear logs of when the house was deleted, by whom, and you can explain what happened if the player came back later.

Yay for Sindern!! I think your alternate suggestion combined with some of my suggestions would be a much better solution to the 'lack of space' (although that's a pretty absurd statement as I maintain there's still plenty of space left).

1) Custom houses have to be approved before they're finalized.

This is very easy to do and only requires two things;

-A tweak to custom houses so you have to be GM level or higher to finalize
-A staff member makes a sticky in the general section of the forums called 'Make House Approvals Here' and they give a simple explanation like 'We now require custom houses to be approved before they are finalized. When you are absolutely certain you are done designing your house leave your character name here and we will check out the house to approve it. If we approve we will finalize the house for you and withdraw the money from your bank.' If we do not approve we will PM you regarding any changes that need to be made. When these changes are made please repost in this thread.

2) A GM checks out existing custom houses and deletes the ugly and useless ones.

I didn't clearly explain this the first time I mentioned this so I'll give it another shot... A staff would look over all existing custom houses to find which ones are 'invalid'. Here are some examples of what I qualify as invalid;

-A house that has stayed as a dirt patch for x months and when a staff opens it up to see what it looks like there hasn't been any designing done to it.
-A single floor house with no items, doors, walls, and just different colored tiles to say something like 'Hi' or 'BOO!'.

What I'm NOT talking about here is personal taste in what does or doesn't look cool. I find my house very nice and others might not like it, and this wouldn't qualify as an invalid house.

3) You have a limited amount of time to design your custom house and leave it as a dirt patch before it's deleted and you're re-imbursed for it.

Once you place your custom house you have x days or x weeks to finalize it and submit it for approval. If the house is not finalized within this period, a message is sent to the staff to notify them and they can look to see if the house is pending approval or talk to the player to find out what happened before the house is deleted and re-imbursed.

4) Limit houses to X amount per ACCOUNT.

Shade gave some examples of why you might need more then 1 or 2 houses so set a reasonable amount and not unlimited. Like Sindern said; Rabbi has 30 houses north of Minoc (I don't know if it's true or not or if it's an exageration) and if these aren't actually being used then this is just wasting that precious space there's so little of left according to some people. And I don't mean 'being used' as in they each have 1 or 2 chests with a few items in them, but actually being used and visited on a semi-regular basis.

Personally I don't think you need more then 2 houses and if for some reason you do then you should have to decide what's more important to you; characters in different guilds or 1 guild house and 1 personal house, etc. (just because you're in more then 1 guild doesn't mean you're the guildmaster or guildhouse owner). Just like how I described in my last post where you have to choose what skills you will train, or what you will spend most of your time doing on INX, etc.