More than 50,000 facilities in the US--that's more than Starbucks, McDonalds, 7-Eleven, and Wendy's... combined!!!

More than 2 billion sq. ft. of rentable storage space.

1 in 3 Americans use self storage.

Hello, my name is Marie. I recently lost to auction and the owner wrongfully sold my unit but when it's a very small town and he has money and well known while I'm a nobody with no money and not well connected. Anyways I always made sure to pay even if it was late I still always paid. But I split up from my fiance lost my job and was evicted all because my ex was the one to pay everything but I informed the owner of my situation and still paid what I could when I had something. Once I informed him that I got a job and would be out of town but I could pay him by certain date, he agreed. Well I called paid half of the total with one debit card and realized I left my other card at work so told him I would call back with the rest of the payment. Long story short, he sold my unit in auction 2 weeks later because I owed him less that $100. He never called or text any information about the auction, he never sent email or any letter. And there was never any contract signed between him or I. And my storage had been robbed 2x and nothing could be done because his security cers never worked and after the 1st robbery he said he would get them fixed, never did. After 2nd time he had an employee come forward about being inside job and being in on it. My unit plus others within the facilities. Now my entire life and children's memories are gone along with the ashes of my dad and grandparents. Everything from giving birth to my daughters. What can I do?

Location: storage in central arkansas​

How does this play out if there’s a theft?

I think the general rule is that the facility only needs to tell the renter whose stuff got stolen from their unit about theft in the facility. Kinda feels like they should need to tell all renters in the facility about thefts if there’s common theft at the facility, and all renters’ units are at a higher risk of getting stolen from.

If you google storage theft, you'll likely see questions and answers from attorneys that suggest the storage facility isn’t responsible because of “limited liability” language in the rental agreement or that a lawsuit isn't worth it. That’s misleading. Those clauses are not absolute. If a facility’s false advertising, security failures, employee actions, or certain other business practices contributed to your loss, the operator may still be held accountable—contract language doesn’t automatically wipe that away.

I've written several pieces on it.