WHY are some lockers empty?

I went to a facility and 3 of the units were empty when they opened them... what is that all about?

For the most part storage facilities do not look in the units when they place them on auction, they see the lock, tenant has not paid, so they end up auctioning it off, not knowing it was empty.

So I guess renter cleaned it out before hand....?

I went to a facility and 3 of the units were empty when they opened them... what is that all about?

In my area most of the property managers either cut the locks off themselves or have the auctioneer do it several weeks before the auction. At that time the door is thrown open, pictures are taken (one long shot) and then the door goes down and a prop manager lock and numbered seal goes on the door.

There are times when the DAY OF THE AUCTION the locks are cut and the door is opened. This is the only time I have seen an empty lkr come up and it simply means IN MY HUMBLE OPINION that the former tenant cleaned out the lkr, didn't let the mgr know he was leaving, and then accumulated a couple of months of non-payment of rent, credit record crapped out and pain in the rear for the mgr and us seeing an empty lkr. THERE MAY BE SENARIOS I haven't thought of that others can provide.

of the 4 lockers at the auction today, all were empty except 1.  it had a shirt in it.

Yeah im thinking the storage renters everywhere are catching on and getting their stuff out cause they don't want us owning it. Wonder if we will start seeing more empty units in the future because of exposure on television.

Yeah im thinking the storage renters everywhere are catching on and getting their stuff out cause they don't want us owning it. Wonder if we will start seeing more empty units in the future because of exposure on television.

Even if that does happened now, later on it will revert back to the way it was. People still get over confident about losing their stuff, people still get behind on bills, life still throws curve balls at all of us. These things will never change, it is just now, people are being more cautious, sooner or later that will disapear.

boy i hope so jross- last week i left the caravan early because by the second location there were SEVENTY people there.  no thank you. ill save my money for tomorrow. hoping my caravan tomorrow of 40 units is light on the lookies and heavy on the treasure!

@ movieman- EXCELLENT POINT.  and well thought out explanation too

Agree with movieman -

Being a property manager, we would throw the door open once a unit was safely and securely into auction status and then take pictures along with a general inventory. There are a number of reasons for doing this - one of the major ones is ensuring the bidders that do make the effort to come out on auction day aren't greeted with a big box of nothing.

We want to keep our well behaved bidders happy so they'll keep coming back and help us to get rid of problem tenants and their junk.

...last week i left the caravan early because by the second location there were SEVENTY people there.  no thank you. ill save my money for tomorrow. hoping my caravan tomorrow of 40 units is light on the lookies and heavy on the treasure!

J Honda....how did the July 7, 40 units auctions go ?  Did you buy one or two ?  Let us know.

For the most part storage facilities do not look in the units when they place them on auction, they see the lock, tenant has not paid, so they end up auctioning it off, not knowing it was empty.

Well my friend is a manger of a storage unit and he looks in them  to see whats in them. He calls me and says its a waste of your time or its worth the time.