Storage facility silently dropped my autopay during a software update and auctioned off $14,000 of my stuff without sending a single notice
LOCATION: Texas
So I had a 10x15 climate-controlled storage unit for almost three years. I set up automatic credit card payments on day one and never missed a single billing cycle. I kept my grandfather's woodworking tools, vintage instruments, and all my childhood photo albums in there while renovating my house.
last Saturday I went down to the facility to grab my table saw and my key code would not work at the security gate. I walked into the rental office and the manager told me my unit had been auctioned off three weeks ago for $420. He claimed my payments stopped processing in March because they migrated to a new payment processor that dropped saved cards.
I never received a phone call, a voicemail, an email, or a certified letter. The manager admitted their system had a glitch that failed to send out delinquency notices, but then he pointed to a clause on the back of my original paper lease stating their liability for lost property is capped at $200. He literally offered me a two-hundred-dollar Visa gift card and told me to sign a release form on the spot.
I walked out without signing anything. I should of checked the bank statements every month, but this feels like an ABSOLUTE criminal disaster. Doesn't state lien law require certified mail and public notice before they are legally allowed to cut a lock and auction your property? What type of lawyer handles this kind of conversion claim?