You may have heard the term “storage auction” before and you would be forgiven for thinking it means selling storage space to the highest bidder, however, the truth is a little different. When people hire storage space, it sometimes happens that they simply do not return to collect it. The reason might be that they haven’t paid the storage fees for a while, and the value of the items is actually less than the money owed, and for one reason or another, the customer forgets about their possessions and lets the rental agreement expire.

Statutory Period

By law, the storage company cannot interfere with any customer’s stored possessions until a statutory period of time has expired. Once this has been reached, the storage company really have no choice but to auction off the contents and make the unit available for rental as soon as possible. That said, the storage company can’t just sell the items, they first must publicly advertise the fact, and allow the hirer adequate time to respond. If they do not, then the storage company can effectively sell the items and use the money to pay the outstanding bill on storage. After everything is paid, if there is still an amount of money remaining, it will be returned to the person who hired the storage unit, as the storage company do not wish to make a profit, merely they wish to recoup their losses.

Bargains to Be Had

If you are aware that these events happen from time to time, you can find some real bargains, and with all items up for grabs, the final selling price very much depends on the bidders on the day. You might be very lucky and the item you want is not of interest to anyone else, which means you can buy it for a very low price. For this reason, storage auctions are very popular with bargain hunters, so be prepared to make a few bids if you attend one of these functions, and the final price depends on how much the other bidders are prepared to pay on the day.

Legally Sound

You might be worried that buying something that was stored by someone is against the law, and in many cases that would be true, but a storage company would follow the law to the letter, and there would be no legal claim made by the previous owner, as they have forfeited the right of ownership according to the rental agreement. If you are in Western Australia, Perth Metro Storage might hold such an auction, so keep your eyes open.

Local Media

Typically, if the storage facility are going to auction, they will advertise the fact in the local newspaper, and the bargain hunters will all be watching that space, so keep your eyes on the right publications, and you will always know when the next auction will occur. If you are looking for self storage in Perth, or anywhere else for that matter, an online search will point you in the right direction.

More often than not, people pay their storage bill and there is no problem, but in the event a customer does not return to collect their stored items, the storage facility has no choice but to auction off the items and reuse the space for rentals.