What are the rules of the auction?
All bidders are required to sign in at the office before bidding begins, so make sure you arrive a few minutes early. We will need to see your drivers license for personal identification and then you will be issued a bidding number. No deposit is required but you must register if you want to bid. Once registration is complete, you will walk to each unit that is for sale. While it's only a short distance you'll probably want to wear comfortable shoes (heels don't work well on our stone roadways). You will be allowed to look into each unit, but are not allowed to enter. You may want to bring a flashlight to help see into the back. We have bidders view the unit from the outside in order to expedite the auction and to prevent removal of items. At the conclusion of the auction any units you have won will need to be paid for in CASH ONLY at the office immediately. You then have 24 hours to empty the unit and sweep it clean with a broom.
Do storage facility employees go through the units?
In the state of Maryland, prior to an auction, storage facility owners & employees are legally allowed to remove the lock and take a brief inventory of the contents of the units up for auction. While we are legally allowed in the unit to do so, we typically take that inventory from outside the unit. Certain items (vehicles, firearms, questionably hazardous or illegal materials) have different requirements that may compel us to enter the unit and collect additional information. Generally speaking, we do our best to leave the units in the same condition we found them in.
How often are storage auctions held?
Unlike many other facilities, we do not frequently hold auctions. We do our best to work with delinquent customers and structure payment plans rather than resorting to auction. Unfortunately though, there are times when we are left with no other choice. The legal process requires an account to be 60 days past due (although we have never auctioned a unit that early) and customers may bring their account up to date at any time until the auction is complete thus removing their unit from the auction pool. For this reason, the number of units in the auction can vary drastically from the time of advertising to the actual time of the auction. You can expect us to typically have 10 to 20 units up for sale.
Our next auction is scheduled for 12/5/2015 at 8:30am.
Come by & check it out!