I don't know about Cali, but in AZ, you can't auction someones unit if you haven't gone through the steps just 30 days prior to the sale. Even if they did default on the agreement, you have to start over. But then, I only know what the process is in AZ. Good luck to you.

Thank you Rose. As it turns out, last week I attended a seminar in my state concerning our state's lien law requirements. It was conducted by an attorney who works with our state's self storage association. I asked him about this and although I constructed the payment plan to allow me to immediately auction, we decided that it was probably safer just to start the lien process all over again.

Here's what I learned from this: I'm going to be a lot more conservative about payment plans from now on. If I have to start over when a tenant defaults on one, why prolong the agony? I'm going to be a lot more likely to just get on with the lien process and skip payment plans unless I'm reasonably convinced it's a hardship case where the tenant is honestly trying to save their goods.

I used to think that it was better to collect as much as I could from the tenant because it would probably be more than I would get from auction, and then go to auction after that if need be. And there will still be cases where that makes sense, but more often, I think I might just as well get the auction over with and get the unit back into circulation.

Hi Kabee: I think that a lot of it has to do with how many units I have available as well. If I am at 86% it can't be a big loss to let them try a payment option. On the other hand if I have no large units and they are in demand, I would hesitate to let the tenant take 6 or 9 months to pay off what is in arrears. We have offered to let people pay a portion of the balance... like what ever the rent in arrears is with out the late fees etc. Then they have 24 hours to vacate. This way we really get a big chunck of the change owed to us, they don't loose their stuff and we can put the unit back into circulation as well. So that is a win win kind of situation.