A self-storage manager at Saf-T-Loc Self Storage in Wichita Falls, Texas, reported the break-in of several self-storage units. The break-in occurred between May 5and May 19.

Police said there is no sign of forced entry onto the property. It is unknown what items were taken from the self-storage units.
Anyone with information can call the Crimes Stoppers hotline at 940.322-9888.   

Source:  Texoma’s Home Page,  WF Police Investigate Break-in at Storage Facility on Seymour Hwy 

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After discussing the impact a self-storage development would have on the neighborhood, the planning board in Burtonsville, Md., last week approved the site plan for an ezStorage Self Storage facility. ezStorage has several facilities in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Originally heavily challenged by the community, the self-storage developer worked with city planners and the neighborhood for several months to minimize the facility’s impact.

Neighbors were concerned about the facility’s signage and the visibility of rooftop equipment. The 147,142-square-foot building will have trees to buffer the building from Route 29 and add screening on the roof to cover HVAC equipment.

Construction on the 3-acre site will begin this fall. The facility will have about 1,000 units on six floors.

Source:  Gazette.net,  Planning Board Approves ezStorage Site Plans 

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Clutter Diet Inc. has partnered with ClutterFreeBox to create a new self-storage service, Clutter Diet Storage, which allows the storage of items by the box from anywhere in the United States with no long-term commitment. The partnership also allows customers to get personal help from a team of professional organizers online.
 
The monthly storage cost is as little as 99 cents, depending on how much the customer stores. In addition, the customer pays retrieval and return shipping fees. The service also allows automated shipments of items at scheduled intervals specified by the customer. Boxes are stored in a 100,000-square-foot archive in Charlotte, N.C., which is also used by Fortune 500 companies to store their business documents.
 
Clutter Diet is privately held and headquartered in Austin, Texas. Its CEO, Lorie Marrero, is a Certified Personal Organizer and the author of The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life. She has served as a spokesperson for Microsoft and Brother, and is a sought-after expert for national media such as CNBC, Good Housekeeping, WGN News and Woman's Day.

Clutter Diet’s organizing products are sold online and in Container Store locations nationwide. Marrero also created ClutterDiet.com, a program that helps people to get organized through weekly project plans, video tutorials, searchable articles, a supportive member community and online consulting.
 
ClutterFreeBox is a storage system that enables consumers and small business owners to store and manage boxes through an easy-to-use, patent-pending Web interface. They can retrieve boxes without ever leaving their own homes.

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Yesterday Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed Assembly Bill 707 (AB707), which improves the state’s self-storage lien law. The bill was authored by Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, and passed both houses unanimously.

The new legislation provides for a value limitation on goods in storage and protects self-storage facilities from non-tenant litigation. It also improves the notification procedures involved in the lien-sale process. In addition, the new bill:

• Includes language on portable on-demand storage units (PODS)

• Permits facility owners to remove abandoned property valued at less than $100 in a reasonable manner

• Allows the agreed-upon maximum value of the property in the unit to be considered the value of the property inside.

• Seeks to decrease the risk of theft by removing a requirement that a unit number be listed in advertisements for lien sales

A change to the law that would have given operators a choice between newspaper or Internet-based lien notices was removed before the Senate vote after state publishers objected.

Lisa Barth-Chiappetta, owner of Barth Storage in Kenosha, Wis., and president of the Wisconsin Self Storage Association, worked in cooperation with the national Self Storage Association to promote the bill improvements and ensure passage through the legislature.

In the 1980s, Barca collaborated with Barth-Chiappetta’s mother, Kathy Barth, and the late Sen. Joseph Andrea to develop the state’s initial self-storage laws, according to an article in the Kenosha News. 
 
To read details of the law, visit http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us and search for “AB707.”

Source: Kenosha News, Self Storage Update

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Even if you have a solid rental agreement for your self-storage operation, the verbiage can become outdated and require minor adjustments. Fortunately, you can make small changes to your agreement without making substantial modification to the landlord/tenant relationship. 

This article doesn’t focus on large rental-agreement changes; nor does it explore small changes to the rules and regulations section of your agreement, because you likely already have a clause that addresses your ability to make those. Instead, I’ll discuss how operators can make minor lease changes that do not significantly alter their relationship with tenants.

For example, let’s say you’d like to clearly define what a “written notice” of change of address is. While you’d like all new customers to be bound by this change, you also want to address the issue with current tenants. This isn’t an item that would change the landlord/tenant relationship; it’s merely a clarification.

On the other hand, here’s an example of a change that would alter the owner/tenant relationship: In light of the recent verdict in the Dubey vs. Public Storage case, a wrongful-sale lawsuit in which the plaintiff was awarded a large settlement, some facility operators might consider adding tiered value limits to their rental agreement based on unit size. This is a larger change that would require a tenant’s written consent through an addendum or even a new agreement.
 
Notifying Tenants

Any self-storage operator who’s executed a rent increase already knows how to make a small change to a rental agreement. You can use the same format to notify tenants of other small amendments: Send tenants a letter that proposes the change and sets forth the language that will appear in the agreement.

You need to give the tenant at least one periodic rental term to accept or decline the new stipulation. If rent is due on the first of the month, send your notice before the first, reminding tenants of when their lease renews and explaining that the proposed change will go into effect. They have 30 days from the first of the month to accept or decline.

For tenants whose contract renews on the date they signed the lease, allow 60 days notice from the anniversary date. This ensures they have at least one periodic rental term to accept or reject the change. Note: Check your rental agreement for any language that may lengthen the amount of time you’re required to give tenants when you make a change.

In your written notice, state the change as if you were doing an addendum. For example:
 
Effective X date, Provision Y of the rental agreement will be modified to provide that “In order for Occupant to give Owner written notice of an address change or intent to terminate, said notice must be given in hand to the Owner at the office or via Certified Mail and may not be sent by fax or e-mail to be accepted.
 
You may need to include a sentence that reads, “Your payment of rent for the next month or term indicates your acceptance to this change or changes to the rental agreement.” You should also state, “If you do not agree to these changes, please vacate the premises and consider the lease terminated by [the date stated in your notice].”

You don’t want to chase away business by telling tenants their rental agreements will be terminated if they don’t agree to a change. However, if you feel the change is important enough to make—and be retroactive—it must be significant enough to ask all tenants to agree.

Conversely, if the change isn’t that important to you, consider adding it only to future rental agreements, leaving established agreements untouched. This allows attrition to rid your facility of pre-existing rental agreements while filling it up under agreements with the new term.

Later, you can address the small group of tenants who remain with old agreements that need to be changed. Eventually, this subset becomes a small and manageable number, affording you more individual communication and explanation with customers as to why the change is being made.
 
Addendums and New Agreements

If you’re making a substantial change to the rental agreement (such as the tiered value limits mentioned earlier), create an addendum or new rental agreement and ask all tenants to sign it. This will prove you have their acceptance of the change.

Do not send the kind of letter discussed above to tenants if, for example, you’re going to completely rewrite your negligence liability and add six new provisions to your rental agreement. This will require a signed addendum or completely new contract. You should get as many of those signed in person or notarized to prove tenants acknowledged and accepted an important and substantial change to the agreement.

Don’t let any of this scare you from changing and updating your rental agreement. Contracts can become stale and outdated. With case law being produced all the time, we all have to react; and with statutes in various states changing, it’s important that you keep your agreement up-to-date.
 
Jeffrey J. Greenberger is a partner with the law firm of Katz Greenberger & Norton LLP in Cincinnati and is licensed to practice in Kentucky and Ohio. Mr. Greenberger primarily represents the owners and operators of commercial real estate, including self-storage owners and operators. To reach him, call 513.721.5151; visit www.selfstoragelegal.com.

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A district judge in Nebraska City, Neb., has authorized authorities to access a unit at Millard Air Park Self-Storage in relation to an investigation of a securities sale. The unit, rented by Rebecca L. Engle, has been surveyed by investigators on two prior occasions with cooperation from the facility owner.
 
District Judge Paul Korslund issued a search warrant that will allow authorities to break the lock on Engle’s unit. Request for the warrant was made by Thomas Sindelar, an investigator with the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, who wants access to business records produced during 2002-2006, when Engle worked as a local stockbroker.

Sindelar is specifically investigating the sale of securities in Royal Palm and American Capital Corp., which he said were sold to approximately 150 households by Engle and her partner, Brian Schuster.
 
Investigators were asked to survey the documents a third time by the assistant attorney general, but a key was not provided for the inspection.
 
Source: Nebraska City News Press, Judge authorizes third look at Engle's files

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Strategic Storage Trust Inc., a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust targeting the self-storage market, acquired an 820-unit self-storage facility in Riverdale, N.J. It is the company’s third self-storage property in the state.

Rick Kerper with Space Stor Self Storage was the seller. There were no brokers involved in the transaction. The property will be rebranded under the SmartStop Self Storage trade name.

"We are excited to announce the acquisition of this new class-A self-storage property," said CEO H. Michael Schwartz. "The premier retail location within a growing suburb outside New York City will be a great addition to the SmartStop brand."

Developed in 2007, the property is located at 112 State Route 23 and contains approximately 62,000 net rentable square feet on 2.4 acres. The four-level building is 25 miles from New York City and 20 miles from two other Strategic Storage Trust-owned facilities in New Jersey. The Riverdale site features digital surveillance, climate-controlled units, freight elevators, a large retail display area and an interior loading/unloading area that shelters customers from the weather.

"The facility has many retail qualities we look for: popular commuting corridor, great visibility, ease of access and new construction. This is the most up-to-date self-storage product in the market and fits well with the nation's largest retailers nearby," said Wayne Johnson, senior vice president of acquisitions. "Customers will love our competitive rental rates and our customer-oriented service."

Since the launch of Strategic Storage Trust Inc. two years ago, the company’s portfolio of wholly-owned properties has expanded to include 34 properties in 14 states.

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Big Yellow Group Plc, a U.K. self-storage operator, posted a pre-tax profit of £10.2m (approximately $12.6 million) for the first quarter ending March 31, 2010, compared with a loss of £71.5m (approximately $88.5 million) for the same period last year.

Operations began improving for the company about a year ago. Storage revenue for the fourth quarter increased by 5 percent to £13.7m (approximately $16.9 million), and revenue for the second half of the quarter was up by 1 percent compared to the first.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose 20 percent to £16.5m (approximately $20.4 million), and group net debt was reduced to £269.4m (approximately $333 million).

“In the quarter to March, we saw the start of the usual seasonal pickup, which was stronger than in 2009,” said Chairman Nicholas Vetch. “There is clearly a recovery under way in the performance of this business evidenced by year-on-year quarterly growth and the levels of reservations, phone calls and Web enquiries coming into the business.”

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Cross Road Rent-A-Space of Waterford, Conn., is partnering with the Marine's Toys For Tots Foundation to store donated toys in preparation for the holiday season. The organization will ship more than 3,000 toys to the storage facility. 

Toys for Tots collects new, unwrapped toys year-round to distribute to needy children during the Christmas holiday.

"Just this month at our company meeting, we decided to institute a new military discount and also to look for opportunities to give back to the community," said Michael Dunn, owner of Cross Road Rent-A-Space. "Then we got this e-mail that the Marines were looking for some help. Our employees are truly proud and honored to be able to contribute to such a respected and worthy cause."

Source:  The Day.com,  Toys for Tots, Storage Firm Partner to Store Toys for Christmas

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