Primary vs. Alternate on a lease

Xiannon

I encountered an issue yesterday in which a couple who rented a unit together less than a month ago has since parted ways, not amicably. The female is on the contract as the primary and the male is on the contract as the alternate. Both parties are claiming rights to the unit. The male came in yesterday morning and changed the lock and gate code explaining that they are no longer together. He claims the contents are all his things. Yesterday afternoon the female came to the facility and could not access and wanted to know why so I told her. She is also claiming ownership of the items. After the female came to the facility, I randomized the gate code and redlocked the unit pending proof of which of them should have access. My question is, does the primary have more access rights than the alternate? I printed the lease and both names are on the lease, her as the primary contact and him as the alternate person with access rights (it does say plainly on the contract that this person has access rights). I apologized profusely to the female but explained that I am only concerned with the security of BOTH parties belongings and for that reason I am restricting access to both parties. I asked her to provide a divorce document that states that she gets the contents of the unit. Am I overcomplicating the situation? The female did advise that there is no way in which I will be able to get them both to the facility at the same time to amicably split the contents to each rightful owner. When I redlocked the unit I was able to peek in and see that the unit is still full, so I do know that the male did not empty it when he came in yesterday morning.

MemorialDriveStorage

To my knowledge, the primary has 100% ownership of the unit, she can authorized the lock to be removed, change the access code and have the alternate and authorized accessors removed. 

themage

Our rental agreement allows full ownership by only one individual (the primary), who is presumably the one paying for it. They can change or remove access rights for anyone else to their unit at any time.

I would imagine that the primary naturally has greater priority, but if your agreement grants both individuals equal rights, then I think you are kind of stuck. Also, as far as I am aware, if the unit is paid to date, you should not prevent access to the (Primary or paying) tenant.

ESS

As the others say, the primary tenant (wife) is your tenant. He is just an alternate. She can actually remove him from her account, change her gate code, and change her lock. He is merely what it states, an alternate. I wouldn't involve yourself too much in their fight, as they can come back on you. Follow the words of your lease and you'll be good.

MamaDuke7

The purpose of the alternate is simply to forward notices to the primary, should they receive them.  They have NO ownership of the space at all.  Primary has 100% ownership.

teamcapitola

I don't know what the "standard" lease looks like in NY, so my comment is based solely on California.
I am also NOT a lawyer;  you might want to consult one as emotions can escalate quickly.

The listed Occupant is the "owner". The alternate is for receiving legal notices.

(it sounds as though your lease allows the owner to specify an alternate that also has access? if that's the case I would still say the main occupant is the "owner" who can assign or withdraw access.)

You can have 2 names as co-occupants (separated with  "or" / "and")  but the alternate section (at least as defined in California - CA B&P 21712(b) ) is only a designated person to receive Lien notices in addition to the occupant; the alternate has zero ownership or rights to the unit/account.

The worst is when they BOTH are actually on contract as co-occupants and then have a nasty breakup! We just had one of these where the husband let the account go into Lien to stop his wife from accessing the unit (until paid neither of them could access it) she promptly showed up with cash and a moving truck.  He called about a week later to arrange payment.....

GSI03

I agree with the lawyer part.    I don't know if you are a single operator or a part of a corporation.  A corporation should have lawyers to help the properties out in these types of situations.   

Xiannon

thanks everyone!