Time to panic? Maybe not. That shiny “rumor” tag is there for a reason, chiefly the fact that at this point there’s no real confirmed reports of this happening to people. Reddit users have taken the opportunity to keep tabs on the house watchers on Balmung, and as of yet nothing has surfaced as abnormal there. (Balmung is one of the game’s largest servers and the unofficial RP server, which means housing is closely watched.) If there is a bug, it appears to be highly limited, but it’s still disconcerting to think about.
We reached out to Square-Enix yesterday morning; we know SE is aware of the claims, and we will update with any official comment when we have it.
“From our investigations, we have not found cases where housing demolition warning emails were not sent to users who were approaching an estate demolition deadline. To ensure that important notifications such as these are received, we ask you to confirm that your email address is up to date in your Square Enix account settings. However, if you feel there was an issue regarding your estate being demolished erroneously then it is imperative that you submit a detailed bug report (either via the official forum, (NA) Support Center/(EU) Support Centre, or an in-game GM call) so that the team can do a thorough investigation. We would need information from those affected directly to ensure we gather as much pertinent information as possible.”
At least one player has already pointed out that the concern wasn’t over the lack of email warning but of the allegedly improperly timed demolitions themselves.