First let me say I LOVE modthesims! The only problem I have with the lots is that I have base-game only. When I make a search in Lots & Housing I always make sure they are base-game only. What MANY posters are doing is listing under this category and, either not telling you or maybe a brief mention in the description, not telling you that you need EP's. Crashes my install every time. Is there a way to stop this careless placement in base-game only? There are a LOT of these.

We can tell which games a lot was built with, and we don't approve lots which are marked incorrectly. However, we haven't always had this ability, so older lots weren't screened; and there's always the possibility of a moderator forgetting to check, or a creator accidentally changing the EP selection after approval. It's also possible that it's something other than the EPs required which is causing your crashes, but that's less likely. The best thing to do when you find such a lot is to leave a comment, firstly so that other downloaders know to be wary, and secondly the creator knows that they need to change the EP requirements. Beyond that, I'm afraid there's not much we can do.

You can check whether the lot is base-game compatible by opening the lot package in SimPE and looking at the version record. You can do this to a lot in the LotCatalog folder, before you have added the lot to your neighborhood.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try the SimPE thing.