NOTE: We are unfortunately currently not taking storage unit cases due to high caseloads, but we are leaving up this page for informational purposes.
If you’ve stored your belongings in a storage facility and they’ve been damaged, stolen, or even auctioned off, you may have legal options. Our firm may be able to help. We’ve represented people against self storage companies before, and we may be able to help you get compensated for your loss.
If you have a dispute relating to problems with a self storage company, call us at 657-845-3100. We don’t charge for consultations and don’t charge a fee to evaluate your claim.
Loss of property happens more often than you’d think at storage companies, even some of the bigger and more well known names. There’s three general ways. First, there could be some kind of negligent act—a water leak, a fire, or some other way the facility or your storage unit gets damaged. Second, there could be theft. Sometimes this is because of poor security at the facility, and sometimes even from their own employees. And third, your property could get auctioned off for failure to pay fees—but they don’t always do that properly, and don’t always give you the right legal notice beforehand.
It depends—both on what state you’re in, and what the circumstances are. But we’re happy to evaluate your case at no cost to see if we can help.
In California, for example, there’s a law called the Self Service Storage Facility Act. That law requires them to send a specific kind of notice, and it has to meet certain requirements. California Business & Professions Code § 21705. “The notice must provide: an itemized statement of the sums due and the due date; a statement that the tenant’s right to use the facility will terminate on a specified date unless sums due are paid; a notice that access to the space will be denied unless sums due are paid; and the name, address and telephone number of the owner or agent with whom the tenant may communicate.” Milwicz v. Pub. Storage, No. B212266, 2010 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1870 (Mar. 15, 2010).
But they only have to give you 14 days notice—so you need to act fast if you get one. Sometimes storage companies don’t do it correctly, and if so, you may have a legal claim for conducting a sale without notifying you properly before doing it.
Every state will have different laws, and different rules for doing an auction like this. It may depend on whether you were properly notified, whether you actually paid your bill, or many other factors, and we’re happy to take a look.
One problem you might have is the contract you’ve signed. For example, in a case filed in Houston, Texas, Public Storage successfully limited the damages for a plaintiff whose property was auctioned off for failure to pay fees. Mukwange v. Pub. Storage, Inc., No. 14-14-00212-CV, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 8373 (Tex. App. Aug. 11, 2015). The plaintiff alleged that she actually did pay the fees—but the contract limited the damages to $5,000. Public Storage won on appeal—but then again, that plaintiff didn’t have a lawyer and represented herself.
In another case out of Fulton County, Georgia, the plaintiff sued because their property was stolen. They alleged that Public Storage and a company called Storage Trust Properties L.P. didn’t follow their own security procedures, both because they let people have access to the property 24/7 and because they didn’t properly record the facility with their security cameras or follow their own requirements for locks. Liberty v. Storage Tr. Props., L.P., 267 Ga. App. 905, 600 S.E.2d 841 (2004). The plaintiff alleged that they were lied to about the security protocols at the storage facility, and could have “rescinded” their contract—i.e., gotten out of it. But because they didn’t do it quickly enough, they lost their rights.
But some cases haven’t allowed storage companies to get out of their contracts—and part of why it’s important to have a lawyer is that you have to “thread the needle” legally to make sure you’re making the right claims. For example, in California, a plaintiff sued Public Storage for auctioning off $250,000 worth of property (including priceless family heirlooms) to pay storage fees. Milwicz v. Pub. Storage, No. B212266, 2010 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1870 (Mar. 15, 2010). The contract limited the damages to $5,000, just like the case in Texas—but this time, the lawyers filed the right kind of legal claims. They alleged “conversion,” i.e., theft. Under California law, because that’s intentional, the contract can’t waive it. And they alleged “gross negligence,” which is a higher kind of negligence—again, the law wouldn’t let Public Storage limit its damages for that kind of claim.
Another court in a case from Fremont, California, though, dismissed a claim where the plaintiff alleged that Public Storage employees broke into his storage unit and stole valuable property. Cabral v. Pub. Storage, No. B294798, 2020 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 2271 (Apr. 10, 2020). The problem there was that the plaintiff waited too long to sue, because the contract said they had to sue within one year. So don’t wait if you’ve had something like this happen—it might not be possible to get anything back.
Maybe or maybe not—again, it depends on the contract. A lot of companies these days make people go to arbitration, which is like a lawsuit, but shorter and less expensive. But we’re very experienced in arbitrations, and we regularly represent our clients there.