We have unfortunately had this situation as well. We had the customer present to us the payment arrangement they felt they could make to us for our review which they liked and then we accepted it based on that. We felt they were trying and wanted to make good on their debt and this was one thing that was left in their control. They were finally able to pay the unit in full, minus fees due to the generosity of our owner.

I just took over management at our storage in October. The old managers had been here 20 years and were WAY too "generous" with the customers by always cutting them a break and taking them out of lien for a $50 (or sometimes less) payment. There were some tenants that had not had a $0 balance for over 2 years!!!!! Some of them really did not have the money to pay in full, so I made them a deal that if they kept their account current going forward, and paid at least $20 extra per month to get the balance down, they would not get any more late fees. One lady could only pay $5 extra. She is still paying on it and still owes about $400, but her monthly bill is paid on time, along with the extra little bit.

They are very thankful that I worked with them, and it helped relieve stress on them for not having to worry every month, and me for not having to lien them every Month!

Hey Silverpaws1 ... I've been following this conversation, and you did a wonderful thing here. I know a lot of managers struggle with these situations. It's great to have a lien-sale policy on paper, but the reality is storage managers are -- like it or not -- intimately involved in their tenants' lives. You can't always do things "by the book" per se. I think you made the right call.

I appreciate your comments and I am happy to say that after 3 weeks of back and forth everything worked out plus we also redid the lease and collected more contact information. It is nice when owners trust your judgement and give you the opportunity to feel good about what you do..Yahoo!

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