Working with another storage company

[Sentry]

Was approached by the owner of a nearby moving and storage company who would like to rent some of my units to capture his overflow (apparently he's run out of available units to rent). For you experienced managers out there: Is this a good idea? Are there liability issues? Some of the potential issues I'm wondering about are:
1. If his customer agrees to store belongings with his company, but they are stored elsewhere, does the customer need to know this? I don't want to be caught up in the middle of any disputes.
2. What if his customer doesn't pay and he has to go to auction? I would suspect that for me, he would move the items to his facility to conduct any auction.
3. Are there legal issues?

Appreciate any input!

[KrisinCali]

Ohhh, we had a shady moving company do that and the police got involved. They were holding people's stuff hostage for more money than the agreed amount. I'd do a search for reviews before I'd do it again. And I still would think twice.
The tenant should own the stuff in the unit-period.

[Storman]

Yeah, that's a big no from me, dawg. He puts other people's items in storage and doesn't pay the bill. You notify him (the tenant) that you will be auctioning the items to pay the bill. He doesn't pay because he doesn't care, you sell someone's stuff.

By your arrangement, you had to have known it was someone else's belongings, yet you sold it all...

Wouldn't touch this AT ALL. I'd tell him that if the owner of the items would like to come and sign the rental agreement I'd be happy to make whatever size they needed available to them, and maybe as his referred customer offer them a small discount.

[DairyGirl]

Imagine you are wanting to rent at this guy's facility. He tells you A) I have no availability BUT I worked out a great deal with another facility. You store your stuff there, but you pay me, cash only, and I'll pay them, or B) I have no availability but I have a place I can take it to store it for you. Leave your stuff with me and I'll take care of it. Cash only please. Would you still store there?

Do not touch this. There is no way things can't/won't go wrong for you. This guy was standing in front of you waving ALLLLLLL the red flags and your response should have been "no thanks".

[Tall Terri]

I could only say the same thing that's stated above by Storman!!

[MamaDuke]

My contract clearly states that the contents must belong to you personally, and subletting is not permitted. So that's a HUGE NO from me!

[Gina6k]

You are a self-storage facility, period.
A moving and storage company is covered legally under warehousing. Besides all of the above reasons why not to do it.

Short answer! Do NOT rent to the moving & storage company!

[GM - StacieJ. - BSS]

OH THAT'S A BIG NO HERE..... In reality if he is turning customers away due to no availability and you are near by him, why in the heck would you rent to him, customers in need of storage that are turned away will go to the next closest or similar priced facility, their storage needs don't go away, their going to move on to the next closest / place. Way to many Liabilities and they will all fall on your facility. this would freak me out to have tenants at my facility and have no info on them or anything. What if he puts problem tenants in there, doesn't seem very legal, if he is collecting the payments, and one of them don't pay, how is he to place on lien on someone at a location that isn't his..This would be like one of our tenants moving their stuff out but finding a friend that they sub-rent it to....absolutely not...
Apparently they may not be running their facility properly if they are full, a storage facility should not at 100% in my opinion.

[AngelaESSTX]

Think of it this way; if he was really doing you a favor, he would refer those overflow to you and work out maybe a referral program between you both.

[StorageSam]

Try and source reviews as KrisinCali recommended. If you pursue the partnership, ensure you have signed paperwork and contractual information that clearly outlines everything in DETAIL!

[lady5563]

It clearly states on our LA that tenant agrees and is not storing someone else's belongings.

In this case I would then the other manager would just send that customer to the facility that has units as a referral!

I would not enter into any agreement like the one presented.

[tarheelguy]

Don't do it. Only rent to the people who own the property being stored.