EZ STORAGE ripoff ILLEGAL LIEN SALE HELD CHATSWORTH California

I agree that filing an opposition will only increase the resolve of the storage facility to not work with you.  Storage managers are good people.  Approach the manager and ask to discuss several possibilities.  1) Ask if you can take some items out of the space, sell them via craigslist and explain that the buyers will pay the facility directly in cash.  2)  Offer to clean, sweep, paint or provide any service that you are capable of providing in exchange for your past due rent.  3)  Ask to downside your space to a smaller unit to mitigate the mounting debt.  4)  Ask the manager if you can move out and sign an installment note that specifies that you will repay the facility over a year or six months. 

It is important to be really nice, respectful and kind to the manager.  Almost every self storage manager is a big softhearted kind person and they rarely get a customer that ever makes this type of offer.  Make it easy to say YES!  Good Luck......

I am in the midst of losing my collection of things to a lien sale.

I was thinking ab out opposing the lien sale, but if I did that, I would wind up in a worse situation.

So what I will try to do is ask for leniency, ask them to postpone the lien sale as my financial situation is making the fight to keep my things very difficult. I know I can getmy things saved, just need to press on. If I lose the things in storage, I have no reason to continue working as it is my only reason for doing so.

How can I word this request for postponement of the lien sale?

Two things:

First, you opposition to lien sale notice must be served by CERTIFIED MAIL (Business and Professions code 21705) or it can be deemed invalid. This is for the protection of both parties. California Opposition to Lien Sale forms clearly state this.

Second:
Why would anyone want to file an opposition to lien sale? To get it out of lien, all you have to do is pay what is owed. When you file an opposition of lien sale, you are, in effect, telling the judge, under penalty of perjury, that you do not owe the bill. Most people do not realize this. Once you do this, the storage company has no alternative but to sue you in superior court because you now have the right to be heard before they can sell your property. Most facilities are going to immediately add legal charges to your bill which start around $3000.00 and up in Southern California. Most of the time, the legal bill will far exceed the amount of the rent.

When the judge sees that you do, in fact, owe the bill and just used the court as a stall tactic, you are going to end up with a judgement against you for the not only the bill, but the court costs and legal fees for both attorneys. If you have a job, your wages could be garnished. If you have property, liens can be filed against your property. The fact remains that self storage companies rarely lose these cases because it is the customer's responsibility to pay their bill on time.

Self Storage is highly regulated in California and their on limits on fees and letters have to be sent out only on or after certain days. 90+ percent of the cases on this site are because consumers didnt read their contract and did not follow it.

I work in the industry as a quasi legal specialist and I recommend that you strictly follow the contract because the self storage facilities must as well. About the only legal strategy that works these days is catching a self storage facility sending the letters on the wrong day. If you cant prove that, save youself a bundle and just chock it up as a learning experience and follow the contract to a T next time. We must take resonsibility for our own mistakes.

I had the same thing happen to me, after my unit was Burglarized. All remaining contents were sold and I was not given any chance to recover my personal effects. I opposed the Lien sale and it was stopped several times. The last sale was done in spite of the fact I had filed the objection and in violation of the law.
I filed a law suit in LA county, join me in it if it is Public Storage INC

I manage a self storage. California law requires a self storage operator to give notice of a lien sale and mail the tenant a notice to fill out opposing the sale.

If the tenant does not return the opposition notice, the sale goes forward as usual. If the tenant does oppose the sale, the storage operator must then file suit against the tenant. While this delays the sale, it is not normally good for the tenant as it adds court costs and attorney fees to the amount due and results in a judgment for all costs being recorded against the tenant.

If you filed the opposition notice within the time limits, they could not legally sell your belongings without going to court.

At my storage facility we use an outside auction service to manage the sale. They place the advertising for us and deal with the bidders. We seldom know who has bought which locker or how to contact the buyers.

to check out the CA. statutes on self-storage before you obtain councel. As for self storage in Ca. in IMHO it is the the most regulated in CA vs. other states.

This is the reason the for the 5K retainer is to do discovery on your case. If you choose to do some of the discovery for yourself I.E. Use the web to get the CA. statutes and then apply them to your situation. Then document your findings and send them to the state agency who deal with self storage. If this doesn't work then obtain councel any try to recover ????.

As a self storage owner, I hate to see why you have to indure this but it is 2005 and shakey self storage opperations are out there.