Orangeburg Mini Storage

Review: I was a customer of Orangeburg Mini Storage from 1999 through earlier this year.I had rented a storage unit there because I live overseas and can't take everything. In October 2013 I missed a semi-annual rent payment because I was expecting a statement form the storage facility owners. The owner would periodically raise storage rates, so I would wait for a bill(much like we get from phone carriers) before paying. The bill never came and I forgot to follow up. By December the facility had been sold. The new owner didn't receive my e-mail address from the previous owner,, and the new owner has a policy against mailing to foreign addresses such as mine. A foreign address was on file, however, The new owners sent an overdue rent and lien to a long expired U.S. post office box but went no further in trying to contact me. I see that California codes require use of a storage a storage tenant's latest known physical address for lien notification. A lien sale took place on Feb,21 without my knowledge and I lost everything in the unit, a material value of about $2,500 plus piles of photos, journals and correspondence that can't be replaced. I found out about the lien sale in early April when I called form overseas to ask about rent payments.Desired Settlement: My settlement request is for $1,250, which is half the estimated value of possessions that were in my storage unit.

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted] account of the issue is essentially correct with the following caveats: 1. New ownership began operations in July of 2013 2. Address of record from the original contract was transferred to the New Ownership in July along with all of the other current tenants. 3. A letter explaining the transfer of business operations was mailed to all tenants of record in late August 2013. 4. The rent on Mr. [redacted] Unit became late in October of 2013. 5. A preliminary lien notice was mailed on Oct 18, 2013. 6. A formal lien notice was mailed on Dec 13, 2013 7. The unit in question was auctioned to the highest bidder on Feb 21, 2014. Several attempts to contact Mr. [redacted] were unsuccessful. The previous owner failed to completely document the history of this account. Although we had the address in Taiwan, it was found in the file on a scrap of paper. There was no signature or anything else indicating that the address was legitimate. There was a note on the former owners computer to refers to a letter in the file, but no such letter was ever located. Orangeburg Mini Storage has done everything necessary to comply with the law. If there is any blame here it rests with the previous owner in failing to keep accurate records and topass on to us a valid contact method such as e-mail.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:

I appreciate Orangeburg Mini Storage's timeline of the storage facility's sale and its steps to contact me last year.