I am surprised this hasn’t come up but how many of you have gotten lockers where the person was living in it? I have had several including one that was also a hoarder. It’s unfortunate but for one reason or another there are people that live in the locker rather than be on the streets. Even tho it is deemed illegal I know some of the storage facilities know and let it slide. I now can pretty much look at a locker and tell if someone has been living in it. I find it sad and gross bc they keep food in them and a lot of empty booze containers. The other thing that gives it away is the toilet paper and laundry soap. There is usually nothing of value except it is a roof over their head. It has changed the way I feel and look at life.
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Fred did you see this story?
To answer your question though. It is likely pretty rare. If you ever get into a situation where a tenant has been living in the locker, the tenant act rights start to kick in. The facility would have a much much harder time legally auctioning off the goods. At least this is my general take on it, but YMMV this totally depends on local laws, and lien laws are different everywhere.
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They would be living there illegally so landlord tenant act probably wouldn’t help them. Still sad to be dismantling someone’s only home and disposing of all that someone in an awful situation has left. There is a video on YouTube made by a man who lived in a unit for several months until he had saved enough to move to an apartment. He showed how he had set it up. It was actually quite interesting the way he did it. Could actually be the video mentioned above.
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Hi Admin and Rocky_1968,
First of all when you mention it to the facility they deny it so I have stopped mentioning it. In my experience people who lose their locker fall into two categories deceased or jail. Mostly jail. I had one young girl who was actually on the front page of the Globe and Mail. Yikes!!! So while I feel bad a) I have to empty it or I lose my money and get charged $1000 plus get banned for life from the auction site. b) I leave their personal papers and pictures which usually there are none or there are several different peoples names on docs which I definitely do not want. There are a lot of people battling mental issues and alcohol/drug addictions who make really bad decisions. There is usually nothing of value bc anything of worth they sell to feed whatever demon they are fighting. A sad commentary on how we as a Society take care of each other. I tend to treat all lockers with much respect bc we are deconstructing someones life one way or another. Probably too deep for this forum. LOL
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Hi Fred’s not here. I agree with you these would be the most likely reasons someone would lose a locker. I too believe it’s important to finish the job. That is what we agree to when we buy and for that reason alone we should do it regardless of the contents. The penalties are to encourage those who don’t care about keeping their word to do the right thing. It is a sad commentary on how we treat our most vulnerable for sure and probably is too deep for this site. I expect there will be times I will have to put my emotions aside and just get er done.
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I am from NYC. During live auction and online we see a lot of them. We recently bought one that a homeless person was living out of. He must have had some type of disability checks or retirement because he had a bunch of nice stuff at some point. The stuff towards the front of the locker was really sad. Had some type of mental illness. I gave back his personal items but the facility said they haven’t been able to reach him in months. I wouldn’t be shocked if he was in the Psych hospital. It really is sad sometimes.
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It really is the saddest part of the job. The hope is that they are getting the help that they need.
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