A storage lien is a powerful legal tool that allows a self-storage facility to claim ownership of abandoned property within a storage unit.

If you are the owner or manager of a self-storage facility, it’s important to understand what happens when someone leaves their belongings in your facility without paying for the necessary time period. When an individual decides to abandon their belongings in a storage unit, they have essentially given up any rights to those items. In fact, if you do not take action against the individual who abandoned their belongings, you could face legal consequences if someone else comes forward with a claim on those items.

It is important to note that you cannot require anyone who rents from your facility to provide personal information such as their address or phone number before allowing them access to the unit. However, once they rent from you and leave some belongings behind, it is possible for them to reclaim their property at any point in time. Allowing this type of activity would put your business at risk because it could cause other customers to believe that they can leave behind property without paying for time in advance as well.

Who can file a storage lien?

If you own the storage facility, you can file a storage lien. If you are not the storage facility owner, you can’t file a storage lien. Just like how a mechanic’s lien can only be filed by a mechanic.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say that there is an abandoned storage unit at Storage Mart. The tenant has stopped paying rent and has left their stuff behind in their unit. Now, Storage Mart wants to sell off this abandoned property and get some money out of it, but they can’t do so unless they have legal proof that it belongs to them — otherwise anyone could come along and take those items without paying for them. So what Storage Mart does is file a lien against that abandoned property with the county recorder’s office where the unit is located (usually with the same clerk who records deeds). This gives Storage Mart legal proof that they own all of that abandoned property. Once they record this information with the recorder’s office, no one else can legally sell off those items until Storage Mart gets paid first.

Looking for assistance in filing your storage lien? Order your documents here or send us an email at clients@storagetitles.com.