Dealing with a lien on storage unit items can be an unexpected and stressful situation. Many renters are surprised to learn how California storage unit laws allow facilities to place a lien on stored property when payments fall behind. The thought of losing belongings with significant monetary or sentimental value, sometimes over a single missed payment, can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re unsure of your rights or how the lien process actually works.
California Storage Unit Laws FAQ
Let’s look at a recent question we got about California storage unit laws:
“I forgot to pay my storage unit fee last month. Can the storage unit sell my stuff? Can they keep all of it (worth thousands) even though I only owe $32 at this point?”
To answer this question, as civil litigation attorneys in California, we look at the law governing California storage unit laws: Business and Professions Code Section 21700 et seq. This law sets forth the regulations for self-service storage facilities in the Golden State.
This law dictates that the owner of a storage facility has a lien on all property held in the storage facility, regardless of the property’s monetary or emotional value. That is agreed to when you sign the contract for the storage rental space.
A Deeper Look at the Concept of a Lien on Storage Unit Property
The lien on storage unit property is valid to cover all rent, late fees, and expenses of preserving/disposing of items in a given unit. However, the lien only applies to the items stored in that specific unit and only within the rules set by the California Self-Service Storage Facility Act. Under California storage unit laws, if any part of the rent remains unpaid for 14 consecutive days, the facility has the right to terminate access to the unit.
Terminating the Right to Use the Storage Unit
To terminate your right to use their storage unit over nonpayment, they MUST send you a notice to your last known address. Please keep in mind that it’s important to update any change of address with the storage unit facility IN WRITING, because the “last known address” means the mailing address or email address you gave them in the rental agreement or subsequent written notice of a change of address, according to Bus. Prof. Code § 21701(f).
Often, a lapse in payment on a storage unit has nothing to do with a renter’s ability to pay. Many can easily cover the rental fee, but they never receive the bill because they moved and forgot to update their address in writing with the storage facility.
How to Avoid Missing a Payment to a Storage Rental Facility
Since it’s hard to plan for something that has slipped your mind (like updating your change of address), there are other steps you can also take to avoid missing a payment and suffering the consequences of a missed payment lien on storage unit items that you own.
Make sure that you have automatic payments set up through your bank account
If you have automatic payments set up through your online banking app, you won’t miss a payment, even if you move and forget to update your address. We’ve even seen people forget to pay their storage units simply because the bill was lost in the mail or never sent. Having the payment sent automatically to the storage unit operators eliminates these risks.
Provide a secondary address to the rental facility
The rental agreement must provide a space for you, the occupant, to provide an alternative address. If you have given an alternate address, then they are legally required to send the notice to that address too.
The notice from the facility holding the lien on storage unit property you own:
- Must be sent to the proper address(es)
- Must be sent by certified mail, postage prepaid, by regular first-class mail if the owner obtains a certificate of mailing indicating the notice was mailed or by email.
- Must contain ALL of the following:
- Itemized statement showing sums due and the date they became due.
- A statement that the right to use the space will terminate on a specific date not less than fourteen days after the mailing of the notice unless all sums due are paid.
- A notice that the occupant may be denied access to the space after the termination date if the sums are not paid and that the owner’s lien may be imposed thereafter.
- The name, street address, and phone number of the owner or their agent whom the occupant may contact to respond to the notice.
Lien Storage Unit Enforcement Begins Quickly
Business and Professions Code Section 21704 is clear about how the owner of a storage unit facility can enforce a lien on storage unit property:
- They must send the notice exactly as required.
- The renter must not have paid by the date specified on the notice
Once that payment is missed, and the storage facility has sent proper notice to your address and any alternate address on file, the lien attaches to the property in the unit.
That means that the owners or operators of the storage facility are permitted, by California storage unit laws, to:
- Refuse you access to the unit and your property within the unit
- Enter the unit to remove the property you had stored in the unit to a different safe space.
Owners of storage unit facilities typically move quickly when it comes to lien storage unit enforcement. Once they’ve prevented you from entering the unit and moved your property to a different location, they have another legal obligation before they can begin selling your property.
California Lien Storage Unit Enforcement: Notice of Sale
Before the owners of the storage unit can sell your property that was housed in the unit, the owner must send you another notice: Notice of Lien Sale.
This notice must also meet certain criteria disclosing the termination of the right of use, the existence of the lien, and the impending sale. Unfortunately, this notice uses legal terminology and many of our clients assume that the notice means that the property will be sold. However, the notice actually explains that you have one final window to recover your belongings.
The notice will state, in more complicated terms, that:
- The sale may not be set for less than 14 days from the date that notice is set.
- If you pay the past due amount in full, you can regain full use of the space and recover your property.
- If the sale does go through, you are entitled to the proceeds that exceed the amount of the lien and cost of the sale, provided you claim the profit within one year.
File a Declaration Opposing the Sale
California storage unit laws allow you to fill out a form opposing the lien sale. Your civil law attorney can help you fill out this form if you’ve gotten to this step already. You must have a valid reason to oppose the lien sale, so if the property is important to you, do not attempt this step without an attorney.
California Lien Storage Unit Action
If no declaration opposing the sale is received, then the owner may proceed to sell the property. An advertisement of the sale must be published once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation where the sale is to be held.
Bus. Prof. Code 21707(a) is clear that “the sale must be conducted in a commercially reasonable manner.” So, if the storage unit operator were to allow the property to be sold for far over or far under market value, that violates the lien on storage unit property laws. As would a “sale” that consists of just giving the property to a friend.
Any excess proceeds over the amount of arrears and cost of the sale must be held by the owner on the occupant’s behalf for one year, and during that year, you are entitled to those proceeds.
Many renters believe that at that point, the owners of the storage unit can just keep the proceeds for themselves. But that’s not true. If you don’t claim your money, then the excess profit from the auction of your property actually goes to the County in which the auction took place.
Unfortunately, that gets to the heart of the question. The storage unit operator can absolutely sell all your property that you had in the rental unit, but they are not entitled to make a profit off of your property.
How a Civil Litigation Attorney Can Help
It’s important to contact an attorney if the property in the storage unit if important to you. We are often able to find problems with the initial contract that could invalidate the lien. We may be able to find issues with the notices the operators sent you that could halt the sale of your belongings. Contact us today if you are facing an auction based on a lien on storage unit items in California.
