Cut locks

Hey all,

Went to my first auction the other day. I was expecting to see the locks being "cut off" just before the auction, but instead, the locks had been removed long before the auction and replaced with facility locks. This was common at all the facilities we visited that day.  Is this a common practice?  Seemed shady to me (for obvious reasons).

Seattle / Tacoma area

Thanks, Mike.
Olalla Wa

There are several threads on this topic already. Poke around and you'll find them.

Each state has different laws.  For the majority of the states what a facility should be doing is removing the owners lock, opening the unit, take a picture and/or description of the unit for records, close and lock the unit with their lock, and then send a certified letter to the last known address of the owner.  In the legal notices many companies put the unit # for auction, maybe full name or first initial, last name, or just the last name of the ownder.  Then a small description of contents.

If the facility uses a auction company the auction company will put breakaway tabs in addition to the facility locks on doors after they have inspected the unit.

Very very few facilities rummage through the locker.  Those that do you can quickly tell and avoid.

This isn't Auction Hunter or Storage Wars.  Please don't come into this thinking you are going to buy a unit and make 4x your money.

BTW - welcome to the boards Mike.

Very common practice. I have only been to one where they cut off the owners locks, all others had the tag and facilities lock. The units owner could show up 5 min. before the auction and pay up. Then go to their locker and if something is missing someone would have some explaining to do. Some places to it to advertise some of the items to advertise the units for bigger crowds. As you go to more auctions you will see this.

Its different from state to state and facility to facility.

In Texas it is very common. I have only seen very few places in Texas that have the tenants lock still on it.