Personals from an auction unit

overpar43

We just had an auction end on 10-31-19 and the bidder brought the personals up to us in the office in the box were pictures and two small boxes that contained the ashes of relatives of the tenant. We have tried contacting the tenant but without success so far. My question is have any of you had this situation and how did you deal with it?

ESS

Yes, we hold the personal items for 30 days. After that we get rid of them. We have never had anyone not come get the items; it may take them a while but they've always come. We have used facebook and other methods in finding previous tenants. Maybe that could work to your advantage?

MamaDuke7

I hold them for 30 days and then if they don't come, I toss them!  If they don't want to come get them, I am not providing further storage for free!!!

overpar43

My concern is the ashes. I don't want to be disrespectful and throw the ashes in the dumpster.

ESS

I could understand the issue with morale here. Maybe if nobody claims them, you could go spread them somewhere (dependent on your state laws) 

MamaDuke7

Some funeral homes are willing to take them and properly dispose of them for you.

CVSSSTORAGE

if it is still in a box the funeral home may be written somewhere on it call them and sometimes they have more numbers to call for the people. 

Pat

We had this happen in Utah, and the funeral home came out and got them. The State's unclaimed property told me they already had too many urns with ashes and wouldn't take any more.  Other papers I sent letters and held for 60 days - only 1 came back for a picture.

i43storage

Unless you want to lose your storage unit business and get sued on top of it, I would hold on tight to those ashes.  If you cannot reach the family, contact your local Sheriff's Department.

ESS

i43storage said:

Unless you want to lose your storage unit business and get sued on top of it, I would hold on tight to those ashes.  If you cannot reach the family, contact your local Sheriff's Department.

I'm curious what could be the basis of the lawsuit for something like this?

teamcapitola

We had a past due tenant scheduled for auction call and tell us that we couldn't sell the unit because "it contains an urn with human remains" and "its illegal to sell them" (sic).

We contacted our lawyers who unanimously said it doesn't matter, if the lien is valid & perfected, go ahead and sell as scheduled.

Turned out it wasn't a persons ashes anyway....it was her pet! 

She later tried to say that the unit was sold for too little; there was a  "Donald Trump Mattress that was worth thousands!"

I guess Trump had a line of mattresses sold through dept. stores? who knew!

As far as I have been told, if the unit has been sold properly (perfected lien, reasonable sale etc.) , there is no legal requirement to keep the belongings. The buyers are also protected  (In California, B&P codes 21711)

21711.A purchaser in good faith of goods sold to enforce a lien or a judgment entered on the lien in favor of the owner on goods stored at a self-service storage facility takes the goods free of any rights of persons against whom the lien was claimed, despite noncompliance by the owner of the storage facility with the requirements of this chapter.

i43storage

ESS said:

i43storage said:

Unless you want to lose your storage unit business and get sued on top of it, I would hold on tight to those ashes.  If you cannot reach the family, contact your local Sheriff's Department.

I'm curious what could be the basis of the lawsuit for something like this?

If a relative of the remains came forward after you had knowingly sold said remains for gain - there would be grounds for a lawsuit and you could find yourself in an expensive court battle explaining how you had followed the letter of the law and exhausted every possible lead to track down a relative.  Each state has very specific laws regarding human remains.  It would be wise to become well versed. 

dbudgen

How are we suppose to know that there are human remains in the unit? Just because someone says so??? People say all kinds of things to keep us from selling their units. Unless they are sitting front and center, we would never know they are there. By law we can not go through their belongs, just write down what can visually be seen. 

If someone said that grandma was in their unit, I would tell them that we will ask the buyer for them. They can then come and pick her up, but the unit is still being sold for non-payment.

CVSSSTORAGE

We just had someone try to stop an auction due to ashes being left in the unit. We gave them the option to sign off on the unit before it went to auction and we would give them the ashes. Otherwise there was no guarantee the person who bought the unit would turn them in to us at the office. She signed the unit over really quick to get those ashes

i43storage

dbudgen said:

How are we suppose to know that there are human remains in the unit? Just because someone says so??? People say all kinds of things to keep us from selling their units. Unless they are sitting front and center, we would never know they are there. By law we can not go through their belongs, just write down what can visually be seen. 

If someone said that grandma was in their unit, I would tell them that we will ask the buyer for them. They can then come and pick her up, but the unit is still being sold for non-payment.

You are absolutely correct, if you do not know, then you do not know.  I was referring to if you knew about the remains.  In our state, we are required to take inventory of the items before any sale.

CVSSSTORAGE

 @i43storage
we take inventory as well but you still cannot see ashes unless they are right up against the door. We cannot physically go inside the unit or touch anything just inventory what we see

Orkocean

CVSSSTORAGE said:

 @i43storage
we take inventory as well but you still cannot see ashes unless they are right up against the door. We cannot physically go inside the unit or touch anything just inventory what we see

Same here, I will not cross the threshold of the door. I had a good regular buyer come in to report firearms back in Tx to me *which was a shock they even were nice enough to report it*, I just told them if it was not in plain site for me to be aware of it I know nothing and what they do with it is up to them. If you truly read over all the items you are supposed to remove and went into units to do so you'd probably be emptying half of most units.

i43storage

CVSSSTORAGE said:

 @i43storage
we take inventory as well but you still cannot see ashes unless they are right up against the door. We cannot physically go inside the unit or touch anything just inventory what we see

Yes.  That is why I said if you know the ashes are in there.

teamcapitola

Who stores ashes in a storage unit anyway!?!?!

"Grandpa always likes cold dark places, and we sprung for the deluxe 10x10!"

Orkocean

It's actually pretty common @teamcapitola, at least it has been for me and i've dealt with stores in 7 states now from one coast to the other so not just a certain type of clientelle/area that seems to do it.

CVSSSTORAGE

@teamcapitola lots of people do. I had a lady who had her baby in the unit and it went into prelien, I called the mom and was like please just come get this baby and they did not want it. Finally the grandma came and got him and paid the unit off. It was breaking my heart to have him not be wanted.

teamcapitola

CVSSSTORAGE said:

@teamcapitola lots of people do. I had a lady who had her baby in the unit and it went into prelien, I called the mom and was like please just come get this baby and they did not want it. Finally the grandma came and got him and paid the unit off. It was breaking my heart to have him not be wanted.

I am seriously speechless! 

Faye

ESS said:

i43storage said:

Unless you want to lose your storage unit business and get sued on top of it, I would hold on tight to those ashes.  If you cannot reach the family, contact your local Sheriff's Department.

I'm curious what could be the basis of the lawsuit for something like this?

Unlawful disposal of human remains, would be my guess