Location: Ontario, Canada.
My mom got a storage unit about 10 years ago when she and my dad split. She wasn’t in a great place financially and fell behind on payments. The owner never followed up, never auctioned the unit, and just let interest pile up. It’s now something like $13,000.
At one point years ago, my mom and the owner had a deal to start a payment plan, but the owner didn’t follow through on that.
There’s nothing of real value in the unit. It’s all personal stuff. My childhood things, toys, a lot of photos, that kind of thing.
My mom (53) was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year (she has since passed). One thing I really wanted to do for her was get into that unit and go through those photos together. She would’ve been so happy knowing I was able to save those pieces of our past. I reached out to the owner, explained the situation, and offered a few thousand to settle it. I told her my mom had maybe a month to live and that this really mattered to me. No response.
I did get through to someone at the office, but they said I had to speak directly to the owner and gave me her number. I reached out again. Still nothing.
I don’t know what to do at this point. It doesn’t make sense to me that the debt was allowed to grow this long without action. I assumed it would’ve been auctioned years ago. I’ve also seen reviews saying this place has been mismanaged for a while.
I still would like to access the contents, just the pictures really. Do I have any legal rights here as next of kin? Or is this basically a situation where I’m on the hook for the full $13,000?