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Consider a situation where you own a judgment and you can't locate the obvious available assets belonging to your judgment debtor; while the debtor seems to live in a nice home and/or drives a nice vehicle, your the debtor leases some storage locker? Could you have a Sheriff levy the contents of that storage unit? Can the contents be sold at auction to help satisfy your judgment? What if you do not know what's inside the debtor's storage unit? This article is my opinion and is not, legal advice. I'm a judgment broker, and not a lawyer. When you ever need a strategy to use or legal advice, you should retain an attorney. Having the Sheriff/Marshall levy and sell the contents of your debtor's rented locker isn't easy or cheap. When you believe there is an item that is valuable, the way to proceed varies by county, state, and the Sheriff/Marshall. One way to find out if the judgment debtor rents a rented storage unit is by using a judgment debtor examination. You could ask them to show you their keys, and ask the debtor what every key is for; or use document requests to see a copy of the debtor's bank and/or credit card documents. A storage locker levy only makes sense if there is something of value in that storage unit. Financial risks and complications may occur, including your debtor applying for bankruptcy. And, some of the property in the debtor's locker might be exempted from levy or owned by a third party. You'll have to make a large deposit to your Sheriff, and you will also be responsible for your Sheriff's costs every day for storage of those items, which is substantially more than paying rent that storage locker. There is a chance you will be stuck paying the Sheriff's storage expenses on items during the time a debtor is in bankruptcy court, which could drag out the proceedings more than 90 days. When your judgment debtor's assets are locked up and just the debtor possesses the key, a Private Place Order will be required. Private Place Orders are used in home and business locations. Most of the time, they must specify the locations(s) and item(s) with accuracy, enabling your Sheriff can go to the location(s) and find the item(s). The 3 basic storage unit garnishment steps below are what I learned from my prior California experience, and your experience may vary: 1) Purchase a writ from the court for the county where your judgment debtor's storage unit is located. 2) Talk with the workers or a manager of the rented unit, and ask them if they'll open a storage locker if a Sheriff arrives having an order from the court to levy what's inside of a debtor's unit. If the locks are built-in and standard, they may be able to. If they say yes, contact your Sheriff in that county where the storage unit is located. Find out what papers (besides your writ) is required, the costs, and ask them to schedule a date when they can levy whatever is inside your debtor's rented locker. When it is a "bring your own lock" storage locker, or those workers cannot or will not open the debtor's space when the Sheriff arrives; you'll need to also request a Private Place Order, to permit the Sheriff to break the debtor's lock to gain access inside that storage unit. Inform the Sheriff you're getting a Private Placement Order, and get an estimated date the Sheriff of when they can levy the debtor's contents of the rented unit. Then, file your motion by ex-parte before, but not too far from the date set by the Sheriff. Contact a lawyer if you do not have experience doing it. Bring your writ, the Private Place Order, and your instruction letter to your Sheriff. A money and time-saving idea that may work, is to ask your court, included in the proposed order; for the contents of the rented locker to stay at the storage locker. That way, your Sheriff can replace that locks, and pay the rent until a sale of the debtor's property takes place; using the funds you the judgment owner, needed to put on deposit with your Sheriff. That would bypass the expense and time of your Sheriff levying and moving the debtor's contents. Note that not all Sheriffs will agree to that, some will have policies that are strict on seizing property and keeping it in their possession. 3) At the time of the levy, you may be there to see what's in their rental locker, however your Sheriff must seize possession of those items for public auction. If you want something which was garnished, at that auction you can credit bid as much as whatever amount is on the writ of execution. If there is unpaid rent, storage locker companies usually will have a contractual priority lien which outranks any execution lien; and at a successful auction, the facility is going to be get paid first. Mark Shapiro of: http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - Your easiest and fastest free method of finding the best professional to recover or buy a judgment.
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storage unit locker levies, levying a storage unit locker, levies on storage units lockers, judgment recovery, private place order,
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