In one of today’s advice columns (Dear Prudence) a writer asked about what to do with her deceased dad’s belongings that her sister wants but are still sitting in her garage after 7 years.
One of the suggestions is to rent a storage unit for a year and then let the chips fall where they may if the sister doesn’t empty the unit or take over payments.
If the sister doesn’t empty the unit or take over payments the storage unit company, after a certain time frame (from watching Storage Wars), would cut the lock and sell the contents to try to recoup rent due.
The storage unit would still be in the LW’s name so the non-payment would still be against the LW as it wasn’t transferred to the sister. Would this show up on the LW’s credit score? How about if the price the unit sold for doesn’t cover what was owed, can they come after the LW for that amount?
On the surface the idea sounds great, but the more I though about it, maybe not.
It’s a still outstanding debt, even if the storage company makes money from the liquidation of the contents. They will sell that debt for pennies on the dollar to a collections agency that will hound the lessee to the end of their days.
Lots of Mom n Pop outfits do not report to credit agencies. National corporations mostly do.
If you rent then deadbeat on a storage unit from one of the latter chains, your credit will get dinged pretty quickly as the first monthly bill isn’t paid. You can delay that 11 months by pre-paying the first year, but you’re also spending more cash out of pocket.
If you rent from the former the ding won’t be immediate. It’ll only come when some debt collector gets involved after the goods are auctioned and there’s a remaining insufficiency. Which there will be because they (the storage outfit) are allowed to tack on BS fees as needed to ensure that happens.
She could rent a POD container, fill it with the stuff, then have it delivered to the sister’s driveway. They won’t pick it up until it’s empty, so the sister will be highly motivated to empty it. That’s what they did in “Lucky Hank”.
I would inform the sister that “Goodwill” accepts a wide variety of items beyond clothing, including furniture, electronics, housewares, books, toys, and working vehicles. They generally accept, household goods, small appliances, and, jewelry, with, donations often funding community job training and, employment program. I would then tell her that, if she doesn’t come and claim the items that I’ve been holding for her for an absurdly long time by, say, March 15, I am going to give them away.
What we did with my mother’s stuff is to rent 2 storage units. One for the stuff i wanted but that wouldn’t fit until my basement renovation was done (plus some stuff i took out of my basement for the duration) and another, rented in my sister’s name, for the stuff she and my brother wanted but didn’t have a place for.
6 months later, we emptied my storage unit and ended the contract.
It’s been a couple of years, now. As far as i can tell, my sister is still paying for her storage unit. I dunno if my brother is helping out. I figure that’s their problem. I don’t have to worry about my siblings being upset that i gave away “their stuff”, and also, that stuff is no longer my problem. I’m happy with this outcome.
(Before renting the storage units, the four sibs went through all the stuff and agreed on who got what, and what everyone was okay selling/throwing out. I was the executor, and dealt with with residual. But there was a lot of stuff that no one has room for but some of my sibs didn’t want to be thrown out. Truth be told, a lot of photos i some want ended up in my basement, but nothing really big.)
Multiple suggestions were given, such as donating the stuff or delivering it to the sister’s door. I am asking about this particular sitiation if the LW choses it.