Storage facilities, insured unit by unit.

The California lien sale, step by step

California's Self-Service Storage Facility Act (Business and Professions Code sections 21700 to 21716) gives the owner a lien on stored property for rent, late fees and other charges under the rental agreement, plus costs to preserve, sell or dispose of it (section 21702). Other states' steps vary.

1. The rental agreement. It must be in writing, say the property may be liened and sold if charges stay unpaid for 14 consecutive days, and request, with space for, an alternate person's mailing or email address for notices. Without that request, no lien attaches (section 21712).
2. Preliminary lien notice. After 14 consecutive days unpaid, the owner may send an itemized statement, a termination date at least 14 days after mailing, a warning that access may be denied and a lien imposed, and the owner's or agent's name, street address and phone, by certified mail, first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, or qualifying email, to the occupant and any alternate (section 21703).
3. Lien attaches. If unpaid by that date, the owner may deny access, enter and move property to safekeeping, then send a notice of lien sale with a sale date at least 14 days after mailing and a blank declaration in opposition (section 21705).
4. Opposition or sale. If a valid declaration arrives by the date in the notice, the owner can enforce the lien only through small claims or another court (section 21710). If none arrives, the owner can advertise and sell (sections 21706 and 21707).
5. The sale itself. It must be commercially reasonable, which includes an in-person auction or a public website that customarily runs online auctions or sales. Excess proceeds can be claimed for one year, then go to the county (section 21707).

Registered vehicles and vessels follow Civil Code section 3071 or Harbors and Navigation Code section 503 instead (section 21702.5).

Tenant insurance vs. a protection plan

California treats these as two different products.

Selling insurance to renters

Under Insurance Code Article 16.3 (sections 1758.7 to 1758.792), a storage facility or its franchisee may not offer or sell insurance unless the Insurance Commissioner has issued it a self-service storage agent license. It then acts for an authorized insurer, only on coverage for renters' personal property in storage or in transit during the rental (or other coverage the commissioner approves), and only incidental to the rental agreement (section 1758.75). Section 1758.76 requires:

• Written material. A summary of the coverage terms naming the insurer, how to file a claim with a toll-free number, the facility's name, address, phone and license number, and the Department of Insurance's toll-free consumer hotline.
• Three disclosures. Buying the insurance isn't required to rent; it may duplicate the renter's homeowners or other coverage; and the facility and its staff aren't qualified or authorized to judge the renter's existing coverage. The renter acknowledges them in writing, or they're on clear signs wherever rental agreements are signed.
• Proof of coverage. Evidence of coverage goes on the face of the rental agreement or to the renter.

Section 1758.78 bars storage agents from presenting themselves or their staff as insurers, insurance agents or brokers.

A plan the operator backs

In Heckart v. A-1 Self Storage (April 23, 2018), the California Supreme Court held that an operator's protection plan, under which it took back the risk of loss to stored goods, was not insurance regulated by the Insurance Code. The plan was incidental to renting space, and Article 16.3 deals with facilities acting as insurers' agents. The court noted the answer may differ when a third-party insurer is the one promising to pay.

Official sources

• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code ch. 10, Self-Service Storage Facilities, §§ 21700-21716 (leginfo)
• AB 498 (2025), Ch. 369, chaptered text (leginfo)
• AB 542 (2023), Ch. 531, chaptered text (leginfo)
• AB 1108 (2017), Ch. 227, chaptered text (leginfo)
• AB 2960 (2022), Ch. 420, chaptered text (leginfo)
• Cal. Ins. Code art. 16.3, Self-Service Storage Agents, §§ 1758.7-1758.792 (leginfo)
• Heckart v. A-1 Self Storage, Inc., S232322 (Cal. Apr. 23, 2018)
• IRMI glossary: care, custody, or control
• IRMI glossary: bailee