I plan to rent a storage unit–what personal info do they typically require? In particular, would they need an applicant’s/tenant’s Social Security number?
Such a possibility seems odd, but I filled out some paperwork at a dentist’s office a few months ago and they had a space for S.S. number–which I left blank–
Just want to be prepared for this possibility–
Things may be different where you are, but when I rented one last year, all I had to do was pay the rental. Sure, they took my name and address, but there was no effort to verify it. The CCTV would have given them a nice picture of me and my car licence plate, should they ever need it.
Oh - I also had to sign a declaration that I would not use it for anything illegal, like storing drugs or explosives.
This.
I was asked, and provided, my driver’s license and a credit card. Nothing else.
Probably a contact number too, just in case they need to reach you.
I also get the line for my SSN at the doctor’s office on the paperwork. I have never provided it and they have never said anything about leaving that line blank.
Ditto for me.
Regarding the form at the dentist: Chances are, they had them formatted when people still routinely gave out their SSNs and used them for insurance, and haven’t updated them. No big deal if you leave that blank.
I can’t think of a reason why a storage unit would need that information. Be sure to use a very sturdy lock.
Driver’s license is all I was asked for (actually, government-issued photo ID). They asked me to confirm my home address and mailing address.
You need to hand them a handful of George Washington ID’s.
My former boss asked for, and insisted on being given, a renter’s SSN. He rented to a lot of deadbeats and having the SSN made it easier for the PI to locate them and for Boss to sue them. At least that’s what he told me.
I had been watching Storage Hunters on TV and asked the manager at the place where I rented about it. He said that they had thought about it, but decided that it was too much bother. The rent was monthly in advance. If I missed a payment, they would send one letter to the address I gave them. If, at the end of the month, they heard nothing, they had a deal with a local firm that did house clearances, for them to clear the store. All they wanted was an empty unit for the next customer.
He told me, nodding towards mine, that most units were filled with worthless rubbish.
Yes to the rubbish. We couldn’t even give most of it away.
As a side note the medical profession wasn’t too happy about the mandated switch from SSNs- it was felt that using arbitrary numbers would increase fraud, increase errors, and generally make things harder. But it had to be done. By the time I started working in the industry a decade ago the switch was fully implemented so those forms must be rather old.