Tenant wants auction winner contact info.

[safeinstorage]

We had a unit go to auction last fall and the tenant now is looking for something that was in the unit. Wants to have the auction winner contact. Not sure how to go about that. Anyone ran into this before?

[MamaDuke]

NO NO NO NO NO

They do NOT get any contact with the winner. EVER. They lost everything when they didn't pay. Can you imagine the harassment that would happen???

[Clarkstoragellc]

No matter what don't give info. Let the auction winner know. If they want to contact, they can.

[MamaDuke]

I won't give the auction winner the customer's info, either. In my opinion, sold is sold, and there should be no contact between them. Way too messy!!!

[safeinstorage]

Thanks MamaDuke, that is what I was thinking too. Just didn't know what other facilities did in that situation. And Clarkstoragellc, great option too. See if the auction winner wants to deal with that situation and leave us out of it.

[safeinstorage]

I won't give the auction winner the customer's info, either. In my opinion, sold is sold, and there should be no contact between them. Way too messy!!!

true...

[lady5563]

I will never give out any info---to the auction bidder or to the ex-tenant.

But excuse me...did you say the sale was in Fall of 2022 and now it is coming into the Spring of 2023 and the tenant is just NOW asking you about who bought the unit?

[safeinstorage]

I will never give out any info---to the auction bidder or to the ex-tenant.

But excuse me...did you say the sale was in Fall of 2022 and now it is coming into the Spring of 2023 and the tenant is just NOW asking you about who bought the unit?

Yes, apparently they are looking for something "family item" and haven't been able to find it. So, they reached out to us in thought that maybe it was in the storage unit they lost.

[Dave Scott]

NO NO NO Never give out that info !!!

[RandyL]

I have offered to contact the auction buyer on their behalf, but never give the auction bidders information out.

[Gina6k]

We had auction buyers trying to return special family items at times. Some are softies and don't want to throw away baby books, family bibles etc. so they'd bring them to us.

Instead I'd call the customer, tell them if they wanted they could purchase some items back from the bidder. If they wanted to regain the specific items, I'd give the bidder the customer number. All the while telling the customer, if they don't call, too bad. I won't get in the middle of it. Some buyers made a great deal selling the entire contents back to the former customer. It's a strange world for sure.

[SimplySpace]

We had auction buyers trying to return special family items at times. Some are softies and don't want to throw away baby books, family bibles etc. so they'd bring them to us.

Instead I'd call the customer, tell them if they wanted they could purchase some items back from the bidder. If they wanted to regain the specific items, I'd give the bidder the customer number. All the while telling the customer, if they don't call, too bad. I won't get in the middle of it. Some buyers made a great deal selling the entire contents back to the former customer. It's a strange world for sure.

We actually have the buyers drop personal items with us in the office for free and we will try to contact them. It's of course up to the buyer but we do get drop offs a few times a year and most of the time no one comes to pick the items up.

[MamaDuke]

We actually have the buyers drop personal items with us in the office for free and we will try to contact them. It's of course up to the buyer but we do get drop offs a few times a year and most of the time no one comes to pick the items up.

This has ben my experience in the past. Only 1 time in 15 years have I had someone come back and get their personal items.

[KrisinCali]

I've had it happen twice-first time the former tenant was super persistent. He was looking for two specific items he swore were in the unit, (he hadn't been personally in the unit for almost 4 years) but when we contacted the buyer he swore that he never saw either item. At that time I told the former tenant, we did our best but he states he didn't see either item. We're done.
He's all 'I'm going to contact a lawyer...blah blah blah." Never heard from him again.

[Storman]

Early in my career I was holding an in person auction. A representative of the tenant showed up to bid on the auction (which I didn't know at the time). As the bidding got higher and higher, a couple of the old pros starting slowing down against each other at about $100. Then this person chimed in at $110, all heads turned to see who this guy was... The old guys looked at him, looked back at the unit to see what they were missing.

The new guy said "my friends wedding dress and important things are in there..."

One of the old guys looked at me and said "$300!", the other old guy said "$350!"

The new guy (sketchy tenant friend) said "c'mon guys, the stuff that's in there is only valuable to me.."

Old guy: "exactly! $400!"

I think it sold for $500, and then they sold back just the stuff the new guy wanted (that they didn't) for $450. They got everything else for $50.

I enjoyed that.

And on the actual topic- I too am a believer that the auction winner takes everything. I don't want them to give me any personal items to be responsible for. If the tenant didn't care about a wedding dress or documents, I sure as heck don't care. AND, if the auction winner says he gave it all to me, then they're at my door. If they come to me and I say "yeah, I have a few boxes of stuff the auction winner returned to me", what do you think the odds are that what they're looking for just happens to not be in those boxes?

How long do I hold it, where do I put it, how do I dispose of it when the time comes? No thanks, you won it, you haul it. I'm on to better tenants.