More and more Americans are taking advantage of storage units, with most operators of self storage facilities reporting an occupancy rate of 90% and up. If you're looking for a place to keep your belongings, take a look at the various self storage facilities that are near your area. Each storage facility is privately operated. As a result, rental agreements from various facilities will include different terms and clauses. Before agreeing to rent a unit, look at the rental agreement to make sure that you fully understand the following 3 clauses.
Default Clause for Right to Terminating Rental Agreement
All self storage facilities will enforce certain rules in order to protect their best interest. Those who break these rules will be subject to hefty fines and penalties, and might even get their rental agreement terminated. It's crucial that you take a peek and understand the default clauses. Determine whether you will be penalized should you spend the night in your storage unit or if you were to do certain things.
Clauses Involving Value Limit of Belongings
Although you are free to store almost anything that you like and want in your storage unit, there are also usually some rules as to the type of items that are banned, but that's not all that you need to be wary of. It's also a good idea to figure out whether the storage facility has a maximum value limit for the belongings that you store in your unit. This is usually for the facility to ensure that they have adequate insurance to cover your losses should an accident or a disaster occur. In the event that you want to exceed this limit, you might have to talk to the manager of the facility and even purchase your own individual insurance policy for your unit.
Clauses Involving Payment Schedule and Late Fees
Don't be hit with late fees and other penalties that significantly up the amount of rent that you are paying. Understand the clauses involving when your rent needs to be paid, the type of payments that are accepted, and whether there are processing times for each different payment method. Taking a look at this clause is also a good idea because some storage facilities will actually give you some leniency and allow you to delay payment without any penalty if you alert the manager of your financial issues ahead of time. Unfortunately, not many renters take advantage of these clauses since they don't carefully read their rental agreement.
Conclusion
Your storage unit rental agreement will outline all of the responsibilities that you have and more. It'll give you a good idea of the type of relationship that you can expect with the storage facility. It's an important document, and you should always keep a copy of the rental agreement with you at home. Contact a company like Access Self Storage-Syracuse to learn more.