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Statutory Dispossession: Property Rights, Property Wrongs & Dispossession Under State Self-Storage Statutes, Jeffrey D. Jones

Jeffrey D Jones

In the United States, self-storage facilities are now a primary locus of personal property second only to home residences. Here are some striking facts: The U.S. self-storage industry is comprised of more than 52,000 facilities and had total sales in excess of twenty billion dollars in 2008; there is a self-storage space inventory of 20.8 sq.ft. per U.S. household; there is 7.4 sq.ft. of self-storage space for every man, woman and child in the United States; it is physically possible that every American could stand – all at the same time – under the total canopy of self-storage roofing; currently, …

Property Rights, Property Wrongs, And Dispossession Under Self-Storage Leases, Jeffrey D. Jones

Jeffrey D Jones

Attached for your consideration is "Property Rights, Property Wrongs, and Dispossession under Self-Storage Leases." For three reasons, the author expects excerpts from this article to become standard in first-year property law textbooks. First, new scholarship on the law of personal property is rare. Second, as the article explains, the growth of self-storage in the United States is a relatively new and substantial cultural development. Third, and most important, self-storage law is at the intersection of personal property and landlord-tenant law, the latter of which is a staple of all first-year property courses.

In the United States, self-storage facilities are now …

Four Property Wrongs Of Self-Storage Law, Jeffrey D. Jones

Jeffrey D Jones

Self-storage leases are troubling. Under such leases, self-storage facility owners may freely dispose of defaulting tenants’ medical and tax records, family ashes, heirlooms, etc. in the same manner as they would treat fungible items such as chairs or a bookshelf. Facility owners are legally entitled to do so through facility-sponsored auctions, most of which are unrestricted by any duty to conduct commercially reasonable sales. Still worse, these legal self-storage practices have generated a clandestine culture of treasure-hunting that often leaves tenants—some of whom default due to medical emergencies, bankruptcy or who are homeless working poor—with little opportunity either to regain …

Four Property Wrongs Of Self-Storage Law, Jeffrey D. Jones

Jeffrey D Jones

Self-storage leases are troubling. Under such leases, self-storage facility owners may freely dispose of defaulting tenants’ medical and tax records, family ashes, heirlooms, etc. in the same manner as they would treat fungible items such as chairs or a bookshelf. Facility owners are legally entitled to do so through facility-sponsored auctions, most of which are unrestricted by any duty to conduct commercially reasonable sales. Still worse, these legal self-storage practices have generated a clandestine culture of treasure-hunting that often leaves tenants—some of whom default due to medical emergencies, bankruptcy or who are homeless working poor—with little opportunity either to regain …