You ask the questions, and we find the answers!
As the No. 1 resource for the RV and boat storage industry, Toy Storage Nation is always looking for ways to empower toy storage developers, owners, operators and investors. “Ask the Expert” is just one way we are serving that mission!
We field questions from toy storage entrepreneurs at our Executive Workshops and trade association conferences in addition to phone calls and emails. We take those inquiries directly to our Toy Storage Nation advisory board members and industry partners to get expert advice.
The Question
“Can I just use a self-storage agreement for RV and boat storage?”
The Response
We took this question to our legal guru Jeffrey Greenberger (see bio below), who responded as follows:
“The short answer is, we recommend using a separate rental agreement. There are too many different issues between indoor self-storage and outdoor vehicle storage to make one rental agreement cohesive and avoid all ambiguity.
Examples include the fact that vehicles must remain fully insured. While you may not enforce that type of requirement or that limit of requirement for traditional self-storage, you cannot necessarily deny access to the storage space by over-locking an outdoor vehicle; often your default remedies are different; you are accepting storage of hazardous materials; and you have to address issues when an occupant parks in the wrong space, crosses the line into another space, or the space is otherwise unavailable.
We also consider the storage of a vehicle outdoors to be far more of a bailment type arrangement than indoor self-storage, so those issues must also be addressed.
This is not an exhaustive list, but just food for thought why an operator should have a separate agreement for this separate business.
About the Expert
Jeffrey J. Greenberger is a partner in the law firm of Greenberger & Brewer LLP, where he concentrates his practice in commercial real estate, with a particular concentration on the representation of self-storage, to design and implement legal procedures, policies and other operational issues, with a focus on litigation and liability reduction and/or avoidance. Jeffrey is a featured speaker at many national self-storage trade shows, state association trade shows and Toy Storage Nation Executive RV & Boat Storage Workshops. Jeffrey also blogs on his website selfstoragelegal.com and tweets @selfstoragelaw.
Have a Question?
Submit your questions to drew.whitney@toystoragenation.news. We’ll get working on your answers and share them on our website as well as on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
