by Winnie Hsiu
May 18, 2011 5:36 PM
There is nothing that stings a business person more than to suffer financial losses, embarrassment (that could chase possible customers away), or to have the good name of their business establishment sullied when they did absolutely nothing wrong. Sadly, that happens more often than one might think.
People have always tended to use self storage units for whatever they felt like; things that range from the illegal to legal and everything in between. It has not been unusual to hear about police discovering illegal drugs or even dead bodies in self storage units. It also goes without saying that anything that is against the law is strictly forbidden in self storage facilities everywhere.
The hard part is when people engage in activities that do not necessarily break the law. They fall into a grey area where they are things that will not send someone to jail, but someone with an ounce of common sense would not think twice of using a self storage unit to engage in it.
For example, recently news began to spread in the UK of a growing number of people that have started to use self storage units to have an illicit rendezvous during the day.
“Self storage is usually stable and boring, however we did have a couple who rented space, visited it regularly but never filled it up. This is taking ‘the big friendly storage company’ theme to an extreme,” said a manager at Lok n Store.
When it comes to questionable but legal activities the tenants are quick to point out that since they paid for the unit it should not matter what it is used for as long as they don’t break the law.
Self storage facility managers and owners think differently. The units are made to do some things and not others. For example, were a person to try and live in one (something expressly forbidden in just about every contract) they would be putting themselves at risk, especially if the winters or summers are brutal in their area. Depending on the activity, the self storage facility owner could get in trouble for violating zoning laws or even health and safety regulations.
When it all comes down to it, the manager/owner of a self storage facility has one tool with which to protect themselves from those that want to test the limits of reason, and it’s as close to fool proof as you can get—control over what goes in the contract. People will test the limits as much as they feel they are allowed, but when faced with the fact that they are not legally allowed to do something (due to a stipulation in the contract) they will either quit doing it or leave. If they don’t, then the eviction laws for your locale come into play.
Sources Used:
“Questions for the Self Storage Legal Network.” SSA Globe; May 2011
“Self Storage Units Often Used for More than Storage.” Self Storage Industry News; 10 May 2011.