Automated inactivity sales certainly makes sense. We're not necessarily saying weekly nor monthly, but tri-monthly would give players enough time to login and check in. Failing that, it should be vacated.
Automated sales will be part of the system of check-ups. Property Management actions will only be taken, if a player has been banned from the server and his or her properties are of value to the community at large and thus require (immediate) replacement (e.g. businesses, "Landmark Properties (WIP-Term)"). The way inactivity sales will happen has yet to be discussed, as it has to fall in line with the other systems planned out at the moment.
Generally speaking, as new Head of Property Management, I have read this topic and am taking much inspiration from it in regards to the concerns we will try to tackle. The overall goal is to simplify much of the process and be quite transparent when it comes to parts of it to the community as a whole. Hence this response. We have already manifested it as our goal for businesses to be player-driven, meaning that business owners will have to offer jobs to players. During the launch phase, this will only apply to certain kinds of businesses at the start but as the server continues to expand and the systems running in the background are refined, we will slowly transition all businesses in batches to a more player orientated and driven approach.
For properties and housing, we currently are working on the broad objectives we have set for ourselves. We hope to be able to share more with everyone on this soon(tm), and be able to present everyone with a solution that hopefully suits most everyones needs. However, I do not want to give a time-frame for this here nor is the soon(tm) meant that something will be delivered within the next couple of weeks. Just keep a look out is what I am saying.
As touched upon in the first paragraph, properties of all kinds (except vehicles) will have regular check-ups either automated or by the Property Management team in terms of activity, but also in terms of quality. This is especially important when it comes to businesses to avoid many popular syndromes of the lack of differentiation, though some of these will also apply to housing. But again, this information is not yet ready to be shared in its entirety. We hope however, the envisioned compromise will satisfy the player base at large.