Thread: Military Tenants

SST:
I am sensitive to this weeks tragedy at Fort Hood, but business must go on. We keep in Prayer all of the men and women who serve in our armed forces.
But, what do we do when they do not pay? What have you done, what has worked, what is appropriate to collect from those deployed tenants that would have been auctioned under normal circustances? What does the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act (SSCRA) allow us to do? To NOT do?
If you have any thoughts, and better yet, concrete tools that work, please post!

Howdy RK

I don't know about "concrete tools that work" but we always make sure to get next of kin information and a contact for their Base Commander or Commanding Officer.

As a former member of the greatest NAVY in the world the last thing a CO wants to deal with is collections! If they get a call they WILL take care of the situation!!!

As for the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act (SSCRA) - I recommend that everyone read it over and follow it to the letter (just like your local Lien Laws!)

Good luck.

I think the Army would ditto Autodoc's Navy comments. Contact info in a soldier's chain of command goes a long way in multiple respects - unexpected deployment, injury, temporary training assignment away from post, etc.

Commanders do not like their troops thought of as dead beats and will help you collect, but be professional about it. Explain where you are calling from, who the tenant is, what the issue is, and ask if there something going on that are unaware of as "this is unusual behavior for Soldier-thus-and-so.." If there is something out of the ordinary going on, your contact will know and work with you on resolution; if it is an oversight, contact will get after the soldier to make it right. Just remember to be polite and professional if you have to make that call.

As Alex said (and I forgot to say)

The more professional and respectful you are the better the results you will receive!

However, if you call and start badmouthing the tenant and/or the military you will get nothing and may even get blacklisted by the base!

For me, when it comes to active duty military I will sit on it for years! Don't care if I need the space or not - I WILL NOT SELL!!

I will also NEVER ask them to sign off their rights (as some have talked about here and on other forums).

First thing starts at the time of rental. Get as much contact information, family, friends etc. I would contact the CO as a last resort, as no one wants their boss knowing their personal business. I would also get the person on autopay to avoid problems down the line, and snag an email address for them also. Military preferred over a free one, as they will have that email address as long as they are active duty.

If all else fails, try to be discreet when speaking with the CO. Don't immediately blame the soldier. Just say you encountered a problem on your end and that you really need to contact your customer to safeguard their possessions. You're just trying to be helpful and supportive. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and being so helpful, the CO will help you contact the person. Good luck.

Please do NOT do what our owner did. Instead of letting us take care of it (we were too slow) she wrote to the Commandant of The Marine Corps. Over a lousy $239.00 that we could have collected in a few more weeks when the young man got back from deployment. Which is when we collected the money anyway.

I wish I could get every self storage owner to read the comments posted by Autodoc, Gina6k (Goddess of CA), JTO and our Presidential Nominee Alexlekas regarding military rentals. I realize, like RK, pointed out that we all have businesses to run, but come on pushing to sell someone’s stuff who is on active duty even if you successfully navigate on the standards outline in the law – you have got to be kidding me.

Yes, I realize that in a given population group you may find a few folks “gaming the system”, but I have always urged clients with these types of issues to just slow down – take a deep breath and error on the side of the angels in giving our military customers every benefit of the doubt. You may not ever get that $239 dollars you are owed, but I urge you to right it off to the Cost of Freedom.

MisterJim444