Thread: Abandoned legal documents...

So I'm watching the 11pm news tonight and they have a consumer watch feature regarding the problems that storage facilities are having with documents that belonged to a business that is no longer operating. The upshot of the story is that the storage companies cannot legally destroy the documents without the permission of the owner of the documents, and they cannot be found.

The reporter then says this "California lawmakers may have a solution. They are considering a first in the nation bill that would allow storage companies, landlords and others stuck holding abandoned records to properly destroy them without fear of being sued"

The interviewee from Access Record Management then says "this bill will provide safe harbor for those who dispose of them properly" (guess what business he happens to be in...)

Anyway, I've looked around the net and on the TV station website looking for more information and can't find anything regarding this purported bill they speak of. Anybody know more?

I must admit that earlier this year I might have had a friend that improperly disposed of about 20 banker's boxes of documents leftover from a real estate company that abandoned them in a unit. He says he felt a little strange doing it at the time, but he didn't want to incur further losses by hiring a shredding truck to come to his facility.....

I guess I should have done a little more checking before I shredded about 30 boxes of tax and other financial records

We have an 8x10 that was rented by a financial management company - we tried contacting everyone we could think of to get someone to take care of this with no help, so after sitting on it for almost a year I spent 3 weeks (in my spare time) shredding it all.

I hope that someone does come up with proper guidelines that does not cost us more money!

Storman, I've also heard about this. Spoke with our attorney about it a bit many months back, so I can't share details.

I believe the CSSA is involved with this topic and our State Legislators along with the whole "Opposition to Lien" notice debate. Best bet might be if we were to ask Erin King, of CSSA about it.

Storman:

I’ve heard of a few cases over the years with accounting records and medical records that the owners got the local professional societies to step in to assume the responsibility of the records thus taking the liability off the facility. These groups did it to save face for their professions. It certainly would be a great consumer protection measure if we could simply do a certified destruction instead of opening Pandora’s Box with a lien sale to recover out unit.

MisterJim444

I just posted an article by Jeff Greenberger about documents and how long you should hang on to stuff.

The legislation referred to is not in place quite yet. It is referred to as "AB 1094". The proposed legislation does provide a safe harbor to storage facilities that properly dispose of documents. More information is available here: http://www.oispp.ca.gov/consumer_pri...cy_leg/leg.asp

The unfortunate side effect of the legislation is that facilities will be pressured to incur additional costs of record disposal (i.e., shredding), which may not be recoverable where a tenant is broke/defunct (as is often the case when the records are abandoned in the first place).

Thanks JohnSD, that's just what I was looking for!

This is one of those things were it stinks to be us

We shouldn't be stuck with paying for the destruction of files, but we will.

If a storage company gets caught disposing of personal information improperly the ramifications for other facilities would be horrific. Can you imagine when the local tv stations send their "Call for Action" crews out for their scoop on the problem? All they need is one local manager who gets nervous and there will be some damaging sound bites. (Then will come the frauds who will store to sue)

The cost of certified destruction, is a price we have to pay, period. No short cuts.
If you do not want the risk of the expense, do storage of household goods only.


*sound of me stepping off the soapbox

Ron VanVarden
ams1@stocktonstorage.net