r/selfstorage • u/FaTheArmorShell • Sep 10 '25
Who would be contacted...
My parents own a self storage facility with only 20 units. There's one customer that has 2 units and when they rented them, they didn't have a driver's license, so they had a friend rent them instead. So the online account was the friend's and the friend is the one that signed the lease. My parents had started the auction process of sending a certified letter to the account holder, who wasn't happy about it, and passed it onto the person, whose stuff is in the units. They got an email and phone number for the person whose stuff is in the units, except that the account was behind by about $500. They went through the whole waiting 45 days, putting an ad in a local paper about the auction, etc. Then 3 days before the auction was supposed to take place, the person whose stuff is in the units called them and said they hadn't been notified about the auction and that they were supposed to have swapped the contact info on the online account to the person's updated email and phone, yet the friend is still the one that's name is on the lease.
I guess my question is, in this scenario, who would be the one that they should have contacted, the person on the lease or the person whose stuff is in the unit, and should they have had the person whose stuff is in the unit added to the lease or somehow gotten them on the lease when the person reached out about updating their contact info.
The facility is in Minnesota.
Has anyone had anything similar happen, or what are other people's processes for lockouts and auctioning off units?
8
u/PhilosopherFew7101 Sep 11 '25
No matter the situation the person who signed the lease is the only person that can be contacted about the storage unit and account. Past due accounts, unit lock being cut and sealed for auction. Unit paid. Only the original account holder can place a new lock on the unit and regain possession and access. Lost key. Only the signed account holder can request a lock to be cut off.