How much time is too much time spent at a unit?

Shelley · October 2020

Does anyone have any issues with tenants spending what seems excessive amounts of time at their units? What would you consider to be excessive?
I have a tenant who spends 8-15 hours at a time at their unit. For all appearances it does not look like he is living out of the unit, cause when I walk by there is no bed or anything that could be a red flag other than the fact that this tenant spends a lot of time at his unit. So I want to know what you guys think and what you have done in this situation.
Note: I have spoken to said tenant about how much time he spends at his unit already with no change to his behavior.

MamaDuke7 · October 2020

Our units are for "dead storage" only. Not for hanging out with your stuff all day every day! Even my homeless tenant is only here for a couple hours while she digs through to find what she's looking for. And that's only about once a week.

Shelley · October 2020

@MamaDuke7 I have relayed that information to this tenant, Just in the last month he has spent 170+ hours at his unit and I am still going through our gate log so I have a paper trail. I know 170+ hours doesn't seem like a lot but it averages out to be 5-6 hours a day.
I want to give him a lease termination letter but since I can't fully prove he is living in the unit, I am worried that he would fight me on it or worse sue me.

Orkocean · October 2020

What does your lease state? You should have something covering loitering and as @MamaDuke7 mentioned dead use. Ours mention dead storage, must be actively moving in or out, no loitering on property *not just their unit*.

Your lease/rules should also have something regarding changes to customers access hours if deemed necessary by management. If you have someone you catch abusing their access you limit them to office hours only so you can monitor them more so.

If you've addressed it and he has made no changes, he has no respect for the facility and needs to go imo.

GSI03 · October 2020

Ok, devil's advocate here. If he is not living there, and is not causing any issues, what is the problem?

sonyawiprud · October 2020

GSI03 said:

Ok, devil's advocate here. If he is not living there, and is not causing any issues, what is the problem?

With our location, not knowing if this is the case with Shelley or not, but here we do not have the space for a parked car all day, nor do we have the space inside to allow someone to hang out. Furthermore, what we have seen in the past is several other tenants worried that a person lives here, we have had people post it on Yelp and other reviews that management allows homeless to hang out and live here. So we now have a 3 hour time limit written into our rental agreement, and we enforce it. With someone spending that much time on property I worry that they can become familiar with the facility in such a way that would make them suspect if anything were ever to come up, like theft, or destruction of property etc.. Having done this for 7 years, it is also just annoying to see these people all day. I have said a few times to my repeat offenders "you spend more time here than I do" with a smile. I can say that we have had alot of people "try" to be here for way too long, and usually they end up doing something else that gets them evicted, like cooking in their unit, bathing in the bathroom, checking other people's locks, and manually opening our gate. I don't have time to babysit them, it is easier to just end the rental agreement.

Orkocean · October 2020

GSI03 said:

Ok, devil's advocate here. If he is not living there, and is not causing any issues, what is the problem?

The issue is anyone spending that much time as a unit is not using it for dead storage. I could understand if it's for instance a deceased loved ones items they had to put in to storage and finally are at the point they want to go through it so they might spend a full day at the unit occasionally as they can to work through things.

@Shelley Is his door fully open the entire time he's at the unit? We do not allow someone to be in a unit with a partially or fully closed door.

But someone spending that many hours day after day, not happening. Even if you don't see them sleeping in the unit they could be spending all day in it to get out of the sun if it's in a hot area then leave at night to go sleep elsewhere. Had a guy in FL try this numerous times. They could also be running a business out of it which most likely your facility is not licensed to allow nor does your lease allow.

Shelley · October 2020

I will have to double check the least to see about the loitering on property. He always has his door open while he is on property. There is definitely something fishy about the situation though cause I'm finding that ever since I "talked" to him about he has been coming in after the office is closed and leaving before the office opens. There have been times he just walks in and other times he drives in.
I am going to review the least and go from there.

ACorona · October 2020

Shelley said:

I will have to double check the least to see about the loitering on property. He always has his door open while he is on property. There is definitely something fishy about the situation though cause I'm finding that ever since I "talked" to him about he has been coming in after the office is closed and leaving before the office opens. There have been times he just walks in and other times he drives in.
I am going to review the least and go from there.

For that reason alone(coming and going after office hours) I would restrict his access. If he can't give you a good reason as to why he's spending so much time at his unit, then he gets to be restricted. He seems much too shady.

teamcapitola · October 2020

Whenever we have tenants that loiter or spend too much time at their units we start with a warning. They rented a storage unit, not a workshop, living room, clubhouse, etc. They are to use it as such; come put things into storage and or take out....period.

If they continue we lock their access to Office hours, stating that we are concerned by their behavior and are only comfortable renting to them when staff is onsite to "assist" them.

If they break any rules, or continue loitering, terminate the contract.

I've had tenants try to say that I was violating their rights ("I am meditating inside the unit, and its a religious thing you are violating")

But the lease is month to month...period... and can be terminated for any reason (or no reason at all).

How much time is too much time spent at a unit?

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