Is an auction required

Does anyone know if in Arizona a storage facility is required to auction delinquent units or can the owner just claim all the stuff for themselves?  I am sorta friends with a storage facility owner who has 5 of his own units full of great stuff he took out of delinquent lockers.  Then he just throws away the stuff he does not want.  Is this legal or does he have to auction the units?  Just wondering.

The link below may have your answer, I did not read the entire page.

Good Luck 

storagelaws.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&Itemid=1&id=5%3Aarizona-storage-law

That is some great information.  Basically it says,  the operator may foreclose the lien by selling the property stored in the leased space at a public sale.  It says may, not must.  This guy does have "yard sales" at his place from time to time selling what he does not want.  I guess he is a collector like me and does not really need the money from the auctions. 

Interesting topic. I don't know the answer but can see justification for both ways.

I can see not having to have an auction b/c it could just be treated like abandoned property like in any other circumstance like roomate leaves crap at your place, your not required to store it forever.

However kinda makes sense to have an auction. I know storage owners cant legally steal peoples stuff but just seems like auctions make the whole thing a little more open and transparent, takes away the temptation of facility owners or managers from trying to gain soemthing themselves.

Alos, just curious about something. I know when they have the aucitons I always thought nobody could touch anything b/c it was still the owners unit until the auction was completed. In this case assuming an owner of a facility was going to take the stuff in the unit at what point does it become there's?

This might be different from state to state.

Here in TN they do not have to have an auction.
It all depends on the wording when it is published. So it is totally up to the facillity owner what he wants to do with the stuff. Throw it away, keep it and sell it off or sell it at a auction.

So check out your states law on this, and go from there.

The other thing, if there was a facility that sometiems had auctions sometimes owner just kept the stuff woudl you wnt to go to those auctions?

Sure its possible the owner is just a collector so say maybe anything besides motorcycle parts he's not interestd in but if the owner is out to make a buck like us you can be pretty sure any unit up for auction is crap b/c if it had anything of value he would have kept the unit for himself.

Here in Memphis we have one facillity where the owner keeps everything, they don't have auctions.
What the owner does is selling the stuff in his own thrift store, or he throws it away if it is to bad for selling.

At the auction I was at yesterday the Storage Owner told us that they reserve the right to bid on the units, however he also said that wasn't going to happen.

At the auction I was at yesterday the Storage Owner told us that they reserve the right to bid on the units, however he also said that wasn't going to happen.

I have heard this several times and have never quite understood the logic behind it. IF the site mgr actually bid on a locker it would result in a couple of possible endings:

1) If the bidding continued and the other bidders stopped, the site mgr would now own the goods for whatever he paid
    for them. Logically, and legally I would guess, he would pay the site the money owed from his bid, the auctioneer
    would get his 20 to 25 percent also, and the site mgr would then need to empty the locker (or rent it to himself).

  
2) IF the site mgr knew his crowd (difficult to do with many new people there  or some regulars coming from out of town), and he was in fact just hoping to run the price up, he would run the risk of having it dumped on him.

 In this 2nd scenario it would perhaps be the equivalent of running up other bidders, and then getting the locker
    dumped on yourself. Unless it was a double-deluxe lkr, I can't imagine the site mgr wanting it that badly.

But, I have heard them say this..."we reserve the right to bid", but have not seen it happen. One mgr said the bids that were being received weren't high enough and closed the door down on the unit. What's the point in that. Leave the stuff for the next auction or keep it all for yourself?