I have NEVER heard of a no sale because the bid was too HIGH!! Movieman will have to chime in as to the California laws and the rationale behind these denial of sales.
Well, I have heard of a no sale because bid was too high...from Public Storage here in California.
Maybe a year ago PS had a policy that if a bid was higher than $1,000 the auction for that unit would stop and it would go up for sale again the next month (unless the former lkr owner paid up...one last chance).
Apparently the rationale on this was that PS would then be adding on another month of non-payment fees to the frm lkr owner's deadbeat account....AND the thought was that if (at the current auction) the former owner only owed $500 on the bad account that they would be sending him the balance of the amount over that $500 and they didn't want to do that ! (this from a former regional manager).
ANYWAY, they no longer do that. The locker I bought May 9, 2012 for $1900 was at a Public Storage. I actually talked to the frm lkr owner and he DID GET that overage from the sale of his locker. He owed $900 and got the $1K overage from PS. He said he wanted to use some of that refund to buy some of his stuff back, but of course he never did. He and his wife are living in a weekly/monthy rate motel.
*****
Some years ago (maybe 5) at an Extra Space, I paid $800 for a locker and got the number of the frm lkr owner to see if he wanted to buy back some of his better tools. He thought he was hot s**t since he told me he only owned $400 and would be getting a $400 refund. He also said "Good luck selling my Mac and Snap-On tools; they all have my name etched on them." I told him that was not a problem for my buyers..and it wasn't. He got his $400 overage back and I tripled my investment so we were both happy.
In California (and many states) that is the case. Frm lkr owner gets any overage over what was due. If they can't find the frm owner that money stays in an escrow account for one year and then goes to the state/county.
I imagine at a mom/pop facility that money finds its way somewhere else !