California Self Storage Operators Roll Up Their Sleeves Again to Fight New Legislation

There’s a renewed battle brewing between the newspaper industry and the self storage industry in California. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 655 into law in 2010 which after three years of fighting between the two opposing industries, resulted in a more cost-effective lien sale process and lien-sale notification procedure. But the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) has backed the recent Senate Bill 279 which would require self storage operators to announce lien sales in newspapers within elusive and smaller judicial districts rather than in newspapers that circulate in the county where the sale is to be held.

The California Self Storage Association (CSSA) is appealing to its members for help in fighting Senate Bill 279, which would mean more costly and time-consuming advertising procedures for self-storage operators in the state. Authored by Senator Bill Emmerson, SB279 would continue the requirement of lien sales being advertised once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation. However, if passed, it would require that the newspaper must be circulated in the judicial district where the sale is to be held. According to the CSSA, the change would reduce the number of newspapers self storage operators can choose from to advertise an auction. This would, in turn, likely reduce the number of bidders and increase the cost to advertise each sale. The association said asking self storage operators to advertise in newspapers of small circulations in the internet age makes for antiquated, ineffective and costly legislation. It is also difficult, the association contends, to determine the geographic borders of judicial districts.  When CSSA director Erin King recently requested a map of California judicial districts from the Los Angeles County Clerk’s office, he was given an ambiguous map from 1951.

The national Self Storage Association (SSA) is helping the CSSA fight the bill.  A SSA survey commissioned in February found that more than 80 percent of self storage operators reported that delinquent tenants rarely or only sometimes find out about a lien on their unit through newspaper advertisements. As the number of “newspapers of general circulation” decreases, the viable ones are free to increase their advertising rates. Already, lien laws in Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina have significantly reduced or eliminated newspaper advertising requirements.  In some states, associations that represent municipal governments, such as Senate Bill 97 in Colorado, would enable public notices to be published via government websites rather than newspapers.

The CSSA is asking members to submit letters of opposition to SB279 to their local assembly members or to CSSA which will forward the letters on their behalf.  According to a CSSA statement: “Now is the time to expand the options for advertising lien sales beyond newspapers of general circulation, not reduce them. Storage operators should be able to meet their statutory lien-sale advertising obligation by posting notice of lien sale on publicly accessible websites or advertising in publications that are actually read by auction buyers but may not be in the illusive ‘judicial district.'”

Sources Used:

Kaslow, D. Carlos. Dietz, Tim. “Newspapers Seek to Adjust Recently Enacted California Lien Bill.” SSA Globe News.  May 2011.

“California Self Storage Association Seeks Member Support in Fighting New Legislation.” Inside Self-Storage. May 17, 2011.