I recently started inventorying a unit prior to the lien sale and found
what might be some highly illegal items. Specifically, eagle and hawk feathers. Report or just throw away?

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ChefMichael
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Anthony and Sons Self-Storage

Are you a certified ornithologist? If not, then I don't think that you are qualified to determine what kind of feathers they are....

funny, but yes I do recognize them, I've got lots of NA friends who are involved in dancing and powwows, (this is oklahoma)They use turkey, vulture, and pheasant feathers as well as artificial eagle feathers. these are real. It doesn't sound like much of a thing, but the fines are very high, in the thousands. I thoroughly go along with not killing birds for their feathers, but I also take the view of quite a few people that birds killed by accidents (hit by a car) or died of natural causes are (ahem) fair game.

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ChefMichael
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Anthony and Sons Self-Storage

I think you missed my point.

yup, he missed it!

Today, we found out that a tenant who vacated had been using his 8X10 non-climate unit for, shall we say, um, "romantic interludes." My husband found evidence of wrappers from certain types of male-oriented products as well as small, empty foil packets of something commonly used with the male-oriented products. I don't think I need to go into any more detail than that. I don't know if the tenant was using his unit for a rendezvous location or a retail outlet for "something" he was selling that probably won't ever be reported to the IRS. My husband was always highly suspicious of this particular tenant, and tried to always make a few passes through on the golf cart if the tenant was on the property. We think it made the tenant uncomfortable enough to leave. Yeah, that and the hefty rate increase I gave him.

I told my husband that we were truly storage professionals now that we had a story like this one to tell. One of our sister properties in our company actually had some tenants who were making not-PG rated movies at their site. Any horror stories anyone would like to share?

When we do a pre-auction inventory, we separate out any questionable items, i.e.: photos, personal paperwork, medicine bottles, etc.
We then set these in the front of the unit and if the tenant does not pay before the auction, the morning of the auction these are removed and held until after the auction and then destroyed.

So I would place the feathers in the box with the marijuana stash, the hydrocodine and oxycotton bottles, nude pictures and home sex videos.

When we cut a lock and inventory all we do is take pictures and make a written inventory of what we can see. 1 artificial xmas tree (every unit has one!), 3 pieces of like new barely used exercise equipment, 10 boxes , 22 big black trash bags , two plastic totes (for the good stuff).

It is my understanding (and you can check with Jeff Greenberger) you open yourself to "issues" if you actually are going through items.

I am questioning what to do with paperwork in the unit that is confidential- tax returns, charge card bills, bank statements. But if we are not to go through it- then apparently we need a signed agreement with the buyer that this type of information will be returned to us to be held or destroyed? Any input on this?

Julie

I'm with you Julie, I don't go into a unit and touch anything. I take pictures of the unit from the threshold, make an inventory of the things I can see from there and place the ad. I think it opens you up to liability if you or anyone else is going through it before it is auctioned. I may be wrong, but I like the way I do it. I don't get into what is personal and what isn't. They didn't pay their bill, not my fault if all of their ancestral pictures and written history ends up in the dump. In my case, it always seem when I try to go out of my way to look out for that kind of stuff it ends up biting me. I learned early on that if the tenants don't care about it, there's no reason for me to care about it even though many times it is hard to see some things get destroyed.

After the auction if the new owner finds something that he or she feels is contraband, it is their problem... they now own it.

The West Virginia lien law requires the following:

"(b) Prior to the sale or destruction of personal property pursuant to this section, the owner shall prepare a detailed inventory of all personal property to be sold or destroyed and shall maintain the inventory listing for a period of two years from the date of the sale or destruction of the property. The occupant shall have access to the inventory listing for the period during which it is maintained by the owner. "

I do not believe here in WV a "detailed inventory of all personal property" can be done by taking pictures from the outside. The law says "all" so I will inventory all.

You may want to check local laws for yourself and not always rely on others opinions.

Not trying to be controversial here, I just like to make sure I read and understand the local lien laws myself and not rely on others.