AUCTIONS

6651storage

WE ARE FAIRLY NEW TO THE INDUSTRY AND HAVE NOT HAD TO HAVE AN AUCTION YET.  COULD SOMEONE TELL US THE PROCESS AND DO WE EVEN HAVE TO HAVE AN AUCTION ( DISPOSE OF BY SOME OTHER MEANS)?

MamaDuke7

You have to read your state lien law to find out what your state requires.  Every state is different.

6651storage

THANK YOU IT'S JUST NOT CLEAR WHEN IT SAYS "DISPOSAL OF ITEMS BY AUCTION, SALE OR OTHER MEANS OF DISPOSAL"

Orkocean

Other means pretty much means if it doesn't sale at auction you're gonna trash it in plain english

MamaDuke7

Some states allow it to be trashed under a certain valuation.  Again, that would be addressed in your lien law.

Storageinasnapp

You might want to check with the Self Storage Association, or you Local Self Storage Association, if your state has one..  If you are not a member, you might look into it.  Not expensive and you get all the information, legal or otherwise, to guide you on protocol and procedures.

JamesStorage

Honestly We always try to have an auction here. If nothing else, we can make some money off it

6651storage

IF THE STUFF IN THE UNIT IS NOT WORTH ANYTHING ?

GoGreen

Our auctioneer has advised us to ALWAYS go the route of auction, even if we think the items are not worth it. His reasoning is that (for example) if someone leaves a bunch of crumpled up newspapers that we determine is trash and throw it away, the tenant can come back and claim that they were super rare/old/valuable and would have paid off their debt in auction, and we would have no evidence against it. So our policy is that we send all delinquent tenants to auction, of value or not, and if no one bids on it *then* we throw the items away. It shows we did our best to collect the debt on the tenants behalf. 

There was one instance where it truly was bags of trash left behind, so we asked the tenant to sign a document stating that it was trash and anything left in the unit belongs to us to dispose of as needed, then videotaped us removing the items and throwing them away. It's a headache, but a lawsuit would be a bigger headache!

I agree with Storageinasnapp though, the SSA or (especially) your local/state Self Storage Association can be a great resource. Our auctioneer works directly with our state's SSA and does lectures on auction do's and don't on their behalf, which is why we generally follow his advice.

ESS

As @MamaDuke7 and others stated, you would need to check with your state's laws regarding what factors determine if it's "trash" or not. In Texas, if it can be deemed of value to someone off the street, we cannot trash it and it has to be put through the auction process. Sometimes it is worth it to keep emailing them to ask if they will relinquish the unit to us - then we can enter the unit and dispose of the trash and auction the rest. Again, that's here in Texas.