Firstly, as you know, your lockbox can store a total of four weeks' rent. If your lockbox runs out of rent, your house will be be repossessed and will dissapear. I've always suspected, personally, that this was a marketing ploy by Mythic to encourage players to renew their monthly subscription. In other words, if you cancel your subcription, then you have to renew it within a month if you want to keep your house—very devious! Of course, there are ways around it, such as giving a friend several months' rent and asking him to keep your lockbox full—but if your friend forgets, or stops playing himself, then you'll still lose your house.
The tip is based upon this piece of information from the Housing Manual:-
Camelot Herald wrote:If there is not enough money in your lockbox to pay your rent, the game will check your consignment merchant's funds and deduct the rent from that money. Lockbox and consignment monies will combine to pay a house's rent if neither alone has enough, but their combined sum is.
Basically, all you have to do is put an item for sale on your Consignment Merchant to the value of the rental for the period you wish to be away from the game. For example, if you have a cottage (20g rental per week) and you wish to stop playing for 1 year, then you place an item (any item will do) on your CM with the value of 960g (with additional rental coming from your lockbox).
Next, you give a friend (or a bot from another account) 960g and ask him to buy the item from your CM. You then leave that 960g on your CM and allow your DAoC subscription to lapse. When the rental from your lockbox runs out, your rental will then be deducted from your CM.
Remember to leave a note in your diary, to renew your subscription in a year so that you can continue to pay your rent. If you're not sure if you're ever coming back, then just use all the money available and sell the item on the CM for this amount. If you come back, all well and good, if not, then you've probably had enough of DAoC anyway.
Disclaimer: The above is just a tip. If you decide to do the above, you do it at YOUR OWN RISK! I, Gandelf (and all the characters associated with my DAoC account) accept no liability for any losses experienced as a result of someone using the above tip.