If you live in Indiana, did you know the default time for assessing a late penalty and denying tenants access to their units has been shortened?
Did you know Indiana, the time period has been shortened between when someone is late and when a lien sale can be initiated?
You would if you were a member of the Indiana Self Storage Association.
As owners of self storage, we must be members of the state and national associations for our industry.
They do a lot.
Over the years, they have:
- Advocated for me in states where I own self storage, often altering the laws (like above) to help me as an owner.
- Provided me with contracts to use with customers specific to the state I am in.
- Most importantly, it kept me abreast of law changes. They have kept me out of hot water, as I will explain below.
- I have access to a knowledgeable storage attorney I have used to ask questions about specific situations I have run into managing my storage business (at no charge).
- Provided an operations manual template as a start for my own.
- Offer ongoing education and training both at the national and state levels.
My experience is that on a state level, the associations have been effective at modifying antiquated lien laws—state by state.
In my home state of Kentucky, they kept me out of hot water.
I purchased a facility where the previous owner had made three days the time period where a customer was late and had a daily late fee that was accessed.
When I purchased the project, I thought this was great because I had never made so much money in fees.
Our state had no specific laws concerning self storage late fees, but there were laws on lien sales time periods.
I had a customer complain, implying they would contact a lawyer. To be sure, I called the attorney at the self storage association.
He informed me that very shortly, in our state, there would be an announcement of some law changes.
The state association had successfully shortened the time period owners had to conduct lien sales, no longer had to take out legal ads in a newspaper (legal ads are expensive), and no longer had to send the lien sale notification by certified mail (also expensive).
He also said late fees would be defined as five days, and I should immediately change my daily late fee to coincide with the upcoming law change.
Had I not been a member of the associations, I would not have known that and could have been in some real hot water with a judge in that county.
Courts love to find where business owners are “taking advantage” of customers or tenants with unduly burdensome fees.
Join your state association at least so you can stay on top of any and all legal changes affecting your business.
We are always notified of the changes, and the majority of them in the last ten years have improved our bottom line.
At the very least, they have clarified specific parts of our business, like the late fees in Kentucky, that can keep us out of trouble.
Our practice is to join the state association in every state we own self storage in as well as the national association.
If you are a small investor/owner in the business, there is no better way to stay updated and participate in the association advocating for you.
It is a fantastic business for us as small investors. So, let’s support the organization that helps keep it that way.
