I am interested in finding out how long we should keep a customers contract and paperwork once they have moved out. Is there a certain length of time required? I realize the neccessity of keeping all auctioned units paperwork but am unsure about all others.We have been open for 5 years now and have all the paperwork stored away from previous managers who also did not know. Thanks for any help. Sue

Sue,

Not sure where you are from, but here in California we are required to keep our paper work for seven years -- after that Hello Shredder!!!!

I would check with your tax accountant first, then possibly look into having them scanned and stored in a different format that is less costly and taking up so much space.

__________________
Mel Holsinger, President
Professional Self Storage Management, LLC
3434 E. Kleindale Ste. E
Tucson, AZ 85716
O: 520.320.9135
F: 520.320.9435
www.proselfstorage.com

I keep my tenant records for seven (7) years and then shred them. Most tenant records have personal information and credit card numbers that you need to protect and you should store them in a unit that is locked at all times.

I will have my managers put old tenant records in alphabetical order in a box each month and mark the month and year on the outside. This makes it easy to find a record if you have to go back for some reason.

Then after tax season I will dispose of the 8th year records by taking them to a shredder. Never, throw records into the dumpster behind the office.

__________________
Michael T. Bishop
StorageLand - Management and Consulting Services
www.storageland.com
sales@storageland.com
208-919-0771 (Local)
877-630-0075 (Toll Free)

The best advice I ever got was always assume your dumpster is going to be on the 5:00 news!

Sorry but I don't want them to see anything but old banana peels!!!!

I dislike the talking heads.

I apologize for commenting on an older topic, but why is it necessary to keep the records from auctioned units?

Thanks for any help.

Never apologize - sometimes an old subject need to be revisited.

Auctioned units epically need to be kept (in my opinion) in case the tenant comes back to dispute the sale. Better have every scrap of paperwork in that case!

Thanks for the reply Autodoc. Sorry about the apology .

I guess the question is: why treat auction records differently than other records? Is there a scenario where an auction would be (or could be) disputed more than 7 years after a sale? I would imagine that the statute of limitations is less than 7 years.

I was looking through archived articles on the Inside Self Storage website and I came across an article on transferring hard-copy records to an "electronic" medium. Specific exception was made for auction records (and for records related to abandoned units), i.e., they should always be kept, and in hard-copy. This thread is the second place I have seen a similar exception made. I was just concerned that I was missing some law, or that I am failing to take into account some potential problem.

Thanks for any help.