Let's talk about self storage.

We recently purchased a facility and previous owners did not keep good records of contracts. If we have sent new eLeases to current tenants, but they do not sign, is there any expectation of acceptance of new contract if they continue to pay rent?  If anyone with experience with this can offer suggestions to get tenants to sign, we'd appreciate it. 

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William Manno
Owner/Manager
Westminster Secure Storage
Anna TX
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If you don't have the signed lease, if they ever stop paying rent, you might have trouble putting them in lien status. To execute the lien, you will need that signed lease. On the other hand, if the previous owners had any type of lease signed, you can use that if they are not signing yours. Read the fine print carefully, if it says anything about changing any charges, then you should be fine even if you raise their rent depending on how the previous lease reads. We usually give them about 3 months and then we actually place an overlock on the unit so that they will contact us directly and we can get the new lease signed. Of course, I'm not a legal advisor and that is just how we interpreted the GoldBook to cover ourselves. Each owner may do things differently as a lot are small businesses and it's really an owner's business decision how much risk he is willing to take in case those tenants ever come back and try and legal activity.

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Terri Wood
Executive Assistant
Ideal Self Storage
Waco TX
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