Cut Locks

Drew_Scadoo

What is your record for most cut locks in one day?? We currently have two downtown locations with 19 total!!

JamesStorage

25. But there were extenuating circumstances

i43storage

JamesStorage said:

25. But there were extenuating circumstances

Do tell ...

JamesStorage

@i43storage I'm afraid it's not that interesting, lol. We had to do repairs on a building wall after contractors put a hole in it. Most of the tenants didn't respond to any of the notifications we sent them.

i43storage

JamesStorage said:

@i43storage I'm afraid it's not that interesting, lol. We had to do repairs on a building wall after contractors put a hole in it. Most of the tenants didn't respond to any of the notifications we sent them.

Ugh.

MamaDuke7

50.  The fire marshal insisted on inspecting the heat sensors in every unit.  She stopped at 50 when she realized they were all in good working condition and properly installed!

i43storage

MamaDuke7 said:

50.  The fire marshal insisted on inspecting the heat sensors in every unit.  She stopped at 50 when she realized they were all in good working condition and properly installed!

The fire marshal would have needed to get a search warrant for each unit in our state.

JulieA

i43storage said:

MamaDuke7 said:

50.  The fire marshal insisted on inspecting the heat sensors in every unit.  She stopped at 50 when she realized they were all in good working condition and properly installed!

The fire marshal would have needed to get a search warrant for each unit in our state.

About 10 years the local police were searching for a suspected suicide or suicidal person.  All they knew was a self storage facility in my area.  There are about 5 but they started with mine.  The officer actually wanted to cut locks to look for the person.  I scratched my head and said wouldn't that be murder instead of suicide.  Ended up having to get a supervisor & chief involved because he didn't believe me and thought we would just cut off all the locks for him.  

Drew_Scadoo

50....WOW at least they stopped at an even number

MegumiM

Can't recall how many we cut but it was a lot. We had a fire in one of our climate controlled buildings that has 136 units in it. Not all were occupied but a lot of them were. Luckily we didn't have to cut all of them because some came by in person. Of course, we notified our tenants and got permission before we just started cutting locks.

ESS

Back in January, I had 14 total at my facility

BAAAAStorage

October of 2016 (Before I was here) they had over 100! Technically it wasn't the locks though. They cut the latch going into the building. 

JamesStorage

@BAAAAStorage I feel like there's a story there...What happened, did someone try to lock the building or something?

BAAAAStorage

@JamesStorage It happened right after a change or management. Before we had cameras too. We are an outdoor facility with about 750 units (non-gated). I'm thinking it was the fired property manager trying to cost the owner some money and make him look bad. I am bad at explaining things but some of the latches hadn't even fallen to the ground until they were investigating after figuring things out. Like someone didn't even open them, just started cutting one after another. So it was either the bitter previous manager or the person cutting went in way over their head then got spooked. 

sonyawiprud

Drew_Scadoo said:

What is your record for most cut locks in one day?? We currently have two downtown locations with 19 total!!

I am assuming this is for auction?  My husband had a record of cutting at least one lock a day for almost two weeks, these were people who either lost a key, or left theirs at home in another state, or broke the key off in the lock, or sometimes broke the key off in someone else's lock! He hates cutting locks!

JamesStorage

@BAAAAStorage my money is on the fired manager. Never doubt the power of petty revenge

Drew_Scadoo

@sonyawiprud it was 19 for auctions

Orkocean

Just had to go to one of our other sites to do their lock cuts 2 days ago. 21 units, only a handful were 1 door units, some were up to 6 doors.. 36v double battery makita grinder with a 7 inch blade, batteries were still showing full charge after and the blade only had a little knick missing from a troublesome disc lock that jumped. Would definately recommend a big boy grinder over the normal 4 1/2 inch 18/20v ones.

WorkHard

Got a call from a tenant who lost their keys and needed us to cut the lock but took matters into their own hands, after being warned not to, to cut the lock themselves. I am thinking they did not want to pay the $25. lock cut fee. To date they cannot be reached to remove the few items left behind which stops the move-out process and makes the unit unavailable. I am pretty fresh to the business and have an absentee boss so I am just in Limbo.  

i43storage

@WorkHard - If there is no lock on the unit and they have a few things left, check your lease and see if it says anything specific regarding no lock on their unit.  I would also check your state statute to see what it says regarding abandoned property.  Depending on your state's statutes, you could remove those few items and store them elsewhere so you could rent the unit.  Then you could official cancel their lease and proceed with the lease/law on what to do with their items. 

WorkHard

I was told about the option to relocate the items by my boss but then she went on vacation again so my hands are tied till her husband moves the stuff whenever they come back from where-ever they went. Otherwise, I guess I just wait. It is the only 5X10 I have to rent...almost.

Orkocean

No customer should be allowed to cut their own locks. We have signs up pointing out it is against the rules and anyone found to be attempting it will be treated as someone breaking in and the cops will be called. As far as the stuff left in the unit, as @i43storage said, what does your lease and state statutes say regarding it? Some have clauses about units left unsecured with items in them that they will be deemed abandoned items and you are free to dispose of should you need to. Do you have a card on file for that customer? We had one try the same mess with us, grabbing what they want and leaving stuff behind. No valid phone #'s any longer and they ignore our emails. We ran their card on file every day until it finally had funds and paid them up another month. Still waiting to hear from them complaining about it as once we do it will be "come get your stuff as you are still occupying the unit, otherwise it's a minimum $200 fee for trash/cleaning if I have to do it". 

ESS

Out of curiosity @Orkocean : When you say "card on file" are you meaning a card they kept on file or a card they had on auto-pay? 

WorkHard

Being new, I depended on the gal in the office who worked here previously but she did not bring the law into the matter for some reason. I would have called them myself but am kind of unsure what to do with no real direction. There is a card on file actually, I am tempted to run it. Since he has made no attempt to return calls or emails can I still run his card seeing as though no official move out can or has been done? I will so do it.
He actually is on auto-pay too.

Orkocean

ESS said:

Out of curiosity @Orkocean : When you say "card on file" are you meaning a card they kept on file or a card they had on auto-pay? 

Just card on file, our lease has a clause in it that allows charging of cards on file for any fee's due including if they rack up any fines. Rather or not it's legal here in Cali, who knows but that's what the owners wanted when they had me create the lease. They've been running for over 30 years operating that way.

ESS

Orkocean said:

ESS said:

Out of curiosity @Orkocean : When you say "card on file" are you meaning a card they kept on file or a card they had on auto-pay? 

Just card on file, our lease has a clause in it that allows charging of cards on file for any fee's due including if they rack up any fines. Rather or not it's legal here in Cali, who knows but that's what the owners wanted when they had me create the lease. They've been running for over 30 years operating that way.

Sweet! I am going to go over our lease again to see if we can. There have been a couple people who stiffed us with a card on file but not autopay so I thought my hands were tied. It is going to be awesome if I discover (and owners allow it) that we can!

Orkocean

ESS said:

Orkocean said:

ESS said:

Out of curiosity @Orkocean : When you say "card on file" are you meaning a card they kept on file or a card they had on auto-pay? 

Just card on file, our lease has a clause in it that allows charging of cards on file for any fee's due including if they rack up any fines. Rather or not it's legal here in Cali, who knows but that's what the owners wanted when they had me create the lease. They've been running for over 30 years operating that way.

Sweet! I am going to go over our lease again to see if we can. There have been a couple people who stiffed us with a card on file but not autopay so I thought my hands were tied. It is going to be awesome if I discover (and owners allow it) that we can!

Like I said, rather it's legal or not, no clue. Being a small family owned I know not everything is 100% by the book but I learned in my year here that i'm just gonna do as instructed and keep my head down going forward while I keep my eyes open for whats out and about

dbudgen

Since they are on auto-pay, I wouldn't do anything. Just let the card run. They haven't given you notice to vacate so the unit is still theirs. We have tags that we will put on the unit to secure it shut so we know if anybody has been it during our walk through.

JEFFRY

we had a fire earlier this year right after a big earthquake, we saw smoke coming out of a unit and called the fire department, they cut up about 40 units and took their items out to ensure that the flames were out and save as much of the tenant's belongings as we could. we reached out to them as fast as possible and they were grateful and understanding about the whole situation. unfortunately this happened after a big earthquake condemned one of our buildings and we had to move some of those tenants to this particular building and boy they were not happy to deal with the fire.  

i43storage

@JEFFRY - I cannot even begin to imagine moving forward after that. 

JEFFRY

@i43storage yeah it was pretty rough, we paid for movers, gave them a couple months of free rent, we rebuilt the burnt part of the building and we just kept going, luckily for us that earthquake did a lot of damage around the city and so most people were understanding.