How long is a storage unit kept before being sold off?
We have all seen the storage auction programs that are on television now, and the rise in popularity of such schemes. That’s if the video above is anything to go by, and I dare say it probably is. How much expertise in selling from then on is displayed is a different thing, but certainly people seem keen to get their hands on abandoned property and do what they can to make a profit. After all, who knows what valuables might be lurking at the back of an unkempt storage unit?
We aren’t living in the best economic times, as you are undoubtedly aware, and storage companies will try and move events on should a customer default on their payments. They will often start the process by attempting to make contact with the customer via any means possible, and hopefully some discussion to see things through to the benefit of both parties can be engaged in. But if payment isn’t quickly forthcoming, it could be in their legal right to retain your possessions beyond a certain date and then remove them via whatever means they feel like – this could be an auction, but could just as well be dumping in a charity shop or a skip, not really how you want to see a chunk of your history disappearing.
In answer to the question of how long a storage unit might be retained before items are sold off, really it’s how long is a piece of string? The first place to look would be in the contract or the storage company’s terms and conditions, where it should state plainly what might happen when. However, no storage company is going to want to hang around too long – they need customers to keep the business afloat and if the money isn’t coming in then they have to do what they can to make it back, which in other words means removing the existing items, retrieving lost costs from them, and getting a more reliable customer in pronto. This question is something that certainly ought to be seriously considered as it would certainly be foolish to get even a month askew in your payment plan, otherwise you might find all that money and your possessions gone down the drain. Hopefully this should not have to happen.
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