» Self Storage Insurance

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Barrie storage places have the same problems most other storage places have.  One of the problems that can be controlled or solved is making sure two parties do not share the same storage unit.

Many people will share a storage unit to save money but this usually ends up in disaster when fights between the friends occur or nobody wants to pay a bill.  Managers will have these talks to their customers when they find out the customers want to do this.  It is best to get one name on the contract and that is the name the manager deals with.  Friends fight and valuable stuff in a storage unit could cause a lot of headaches for everyone involved.

Another problem is divorce.  A woman or man will come in the office and ask for codes to get in their ex or soon to be ex spouse’s unit to get things from the unit.  Do not do it.  They will try to trick the manager and lawsuits could follow.  The contract will have a space for names that are allowed in, but the person who is renting the storage unit can take off or add names anytime they want.  A good manager will honor that and that only.

Barrie storage has the same problems that occur in most storage faculties.  I have seen fights in my office before between boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and wives and all others in between.  I even had to call the cops a few times because the fight became heated.  Only the person on the contract and all people allowed access at that moment could come in.  Do not give out codes to any other person.  This will always lead a manager down the wrong road and these bad habits can sink companies with lawsuits.

People will try to trick managers quite often to get into other people’s units.  Sometimes there are court orders during divorces involving storage units.  Ask for the papers if as a manager you are unsure of these things.  An angry customer trying to trick you is better than a mistake and a lawsuit.  Stick to your guns no matter how the customer reacts.  Always be calm though throughout the whole process.  Two angry people is no way to go.

As a manager, you should be the one in charge.  Do not be tricked or goated into anything you do not want to do.  In my experience, the truth is always best and the contract is the truth.  Know your customer or ask them for ID if you do not know them.  I knew many of my customers because I talked to them and walked the property enough to see who was who.  All these things are extremely helpful to be a good manager and get rid of all the stress involved.  Your customers have stress all ready, do not add to it.

Moving is stressful.  Moving also means a change in one’s life, and that change could be negative like splits and divorce or death or anything of a number of other things.  Be aware of all of this as a manager of a storage place and as manager of Barrie storage.  Other than that, being a storage manager is a pretty good job, I enjoyed it.

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There is nothing worse than going back to your self storage unit after years of paying storage fees to find that your items have been damaged or even stolen. While this is very rare, and your chances of encountering such a loss are slim to none, the self storage industry does realize that there is a extraordinary possibility it could happen.

This rare possibility should not keep you up at night and you should not lose sleep over whether or not the items in your storage unit were damaged. To give you peace of mind, most reputable self storage properties offer additional insurance policies that renters can take out on their storage unit.

These policies protect the renter against loss due to negligence on the part of the storage manger or property. The cost is typically very low and there may be zero deductible, or a very small amount, making it more appealing than a homeowner’s claim may turn out to be. Sometimes, homeowner insurance will cover property stored offsite – other times it will not. If you aren’t sure what your homeowner policy will or will not cover, then the safest bet is to got with the storage insurance policy.

Unfortunately, crazy things can happen. One such fluke occurred recently in Hawaii. A tenant who held items in a storage unit over the course of several years seemed to have no interaction with their storage unit. After having maintained the rent of the space for several years, the tenants re-entered the space only to find that a leak had lead to water damage and worse, the growth of mold. This mold was determined to be toxic and as a result, many of the personal affects in the storage unit were unrecoverable.

It is the claim of the tenant that the leaky room was not disclosed or noted by the storage property. The tenant is suing the storage facility for negligence and fraudulent advertising.

This quote by the tenant’s attorney seems to be every self storage owner’s nightmare. “To advertise you take good care of people’s property establishes a warranty…certainly when they named themselves Aloha Storage”. It would appear as if the attorney is using a friendly business name as part of the grounds for the lawsuit by stating that a welcoming name advertises safety. Certainly, storage owners will not begin naming their properties ‘Store At Your Own Risk’ but it begs the question of what level of care is reasonable to expect from a storage provider.

Upon reading the initial report of this claim, one begs these questions. Did the storage property offer insurance to the tenants? Did they decline? Had they rented the unit and not returned until time of this claim? Could other tenants have been exposed to the toxic mold?

While this case is extreme, there may be some grounds if the self storage operator was negligent in repairing or maintaining the roof. However, cases like these are so rare because self storage owners understand their legal and moral responsibilities to provide a suitable environment for self storage. As a whole, this group of business men and women take the care of their facilities to be a top priority to protect their own investment and protect themselves against such claims.

What we can learn from this is that a tenant can protect themselves by choosing a high-end, well maintained storage property that appears to have no structures in a state of disrepair. Also, a tenant can take out additional insurance. And finally, even if a tenant does not need an item out of the space, it is a good idea to visit the unit a few times a year and inspect the unit. If any concern is seen, it should be reported to the manager immediately.

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