Legislature talks about legal notices for storage auctions

Only in the northeast !

standard (dot) net/stories/2013/03/07/our-view-notice-critical-storage

Here is my official response. We'll see if they publish it.

Newspapers are the only ones crying about this because it effects a major portion of their revenue. Newspapers are no longer the best way to notify the public. Legal notices posted on a publicly available website will reach far more people than the limited few that subscribe to a newspaper and actually read the public notices.

Some storage facilities put off their auctions several months due to the expense of the legal notice. Instead of auctioning off one or two units they have to wait until they have several units to sell to offset the cost. This may not be a big deal for medium or large facilities at 80-90% capacity, but what about the mom & pop facility who only has 10 or 20 units. These facilities can't afford the rent loss, let alone the addition expense of the notice which is often comparable to the rent loss.

Newspapers have been gouging certain industries for decades and people are tired of it. It will be interesting to watch the newspapers try to protect their bread and butter as they oppose SB182. This is not about the best interest of the public, it's all about money.

I don’t see where the loss is for the storage facility. Either they get the money back for the legal ad from the lien sale or through their profit/loss sheet at the end of the year. I think it would be advantageous for the facility to unload bad debts ASAP.

The average cost of a legal notice is $300-500. It only costs a facility $5-10 to add another name to the notice. So it's definitely more cost effective to place an ad for several units.