Can a Dtoarage Facility Sell My Property
Full Question:
Answer:
The answer will depend on whether there are other liens on the property, but generally the storage facility can only collect what they are owed and the balance, if any, from a sale must be returned within 2 years before deemed abandoned. They are required to send you a notice of any balance remaining after sale. Costs, such as a lien charge and costs of sale may also be deducted from the sale price. If the items sell for less than you owe, it is possible they can sue you for the remaining balance owed.
Please see the following FL statutes:
83.805 Lien.—The owner of a self-service storage facility or self-contained storage unit and the owner’s heirs, executors, administrators, successors, and assigns have a lien upon all personal property, whether or not owned by the tenant, located at a self-service storage facility or in a self-contained storage unit for rent, labor charges, or other charges, present or future, in relation to the personal property and for expenses necessary for its preservation or expenses reasonably incurred in its sale or other disposition pursuant to ss. 83.801-83.809. The lien provided for in this section attaches as of the date that the personal property is brought to the self-service storage facility or as of the date the tenant takes possession of the self-contained storage unit, and the priority of this lien shall be the same as provided in s. 83.08; however, in the event of default, the owner must give notice to persons who hold perfected security interests under the Uniform Commercial Code in which the tenant is named as the debtor.
83.806 Enforcement of lien.—An owner’s lien as provided in s. 83.805 may be satisfied as follows:
(1) The tenant shall be notified by written notice delivered in person or by certified mail to the tenant’s last known address and conspicuously posted at the self-service storage facility or on the self-contained storage unit.
(2) The notice shall include:
(a) An itemized statement of the owner’s claim, showing the sum due at the time of the notice and the date when the sum became due.
(b) The same description, or a reasonably similar description, of the personal property as provided in the rental agreement.
(c) A demand for payment within a specified time not less than 14 days after delivery of the notice.
(d) A conspicuous statement that, unless the claim is paid within the time stated in the notice, the personal property will be advertised for sale or other disposition and will be sold or otherwise disposed of at a specified time and place.
(e) The name, street address, and telephone number of the owner whom the tenant may contact to respond to the notice.
(3) Any notice given pursuant to this section shall be presumed delivered when it is deposited with the United States Postal Service, registered, and properly addressed with postage prepaid.
(4) After the expiration of the time given in the notice, an advertisement of the sale or other disposition shall be published once a week for 2 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the area where the self-service storage facility or self-contained storage unit is located. Inasmuch as any sale may involve property of more than one tenant, a single advertisement may be used to dispose of property at any one sale.
(a) The advertisement shall include:
1. A brief and general description of what is believed to constitute the personal property contained in the storage unit, as provided in paragraph (2)(b).
2. The address of the self-service storage facility or the address where the self-contained storage unit is located and the name of the tenant.
3. The time, place, and manner of the sale or other disposition. The sale or other disposition shall take place not sooner than 15 days after the first publication.
(b) If there is no newspaper of general circulation in the area where the self-service storage facility or self-contained storage unit is located, the advertisement shall be posted at least 10 days before the date of the sale or other disposition in not fewer than three conspicuous places in the neighborhood where the self-service storage facility or self-contained storage unit is located.
(5) Any sale or other disposition of the personal property shall conform to the terms of the notification as provided for in this section and shall be conducted in a commercially reasonable manner, as that term is used in s. 679.610.
(6) Before any sale or other disposition of personal property pursuant to this section, the tenant may pay the amount necessary to satisfy the lien and the reasonable expenses incurred under this section and thereby redeem the personal property. Upon receipt of such payment, the owner shall return the property to the tenant and thereafter shall have no liability to any person with respect to such personal property. If the tenant fails to redeem the personal property or satisfy the lien, including reasonable expenses, he or she will be deemed to have unjustifiably abandoned the self-service storage facility or self-contained storage unit, and the owner may resume possession of the premises for himself or herself.
(7) A purchaser in good faith of the personal property sold to satisfy a lien provided for in s. 83.805 takes the property free of any claims, except those interests provided for in s. 83.808, despite noncompliance by the owner with the requirements of this section.
(8) In the event of a sale under this section, the owner may satisfy his or her lien from the proceeds of the sale, provided the owner’s lien has priority over all other liens in the personal property. The lien rights of secured lienholders are automatically transferred to the remaining proceeds of the sale. The balance, if any, shall be held by the owner for delivery on demand to the tenant. A notice of any balance shall be delivered by the owner to the tenant in person or by certified mail to the last known address of the tenant. If the tenant does not claim the balance of the proceeds within 2 years of the date of sale, the proceeds shall be deemed abandoned, and the owner shall have no further obligation with regard to the payment of the balance. In the event that the owner’s lien does not have priority over all other liens, the sale proceeds shall be held for the benefit of the holders of those liens having priority. A notice of the amount of the sale proceeds shall be delivered by the owner to the tenant or secured lienholders in person or by certified mail to their last known addresses. If the tenant or the secured lienholders do not claim the sale proceeds within 2 years of the date of sale, the proceeds shall be deemed abandoned, and the owner shall have no further obligation with regard to the payment of the proceeds.