Self-service storage facilities.

(1) Existing law, the California Self-Service Storage Facility Act, specifies remedies and procedures for self-service storage facility owners when occupants are delinquent in paying rent or other charges. Under existing law, if rent or other charges due from an occupant remain unpaid for 14 consecutive days, an owner may terminate the right of the occupant to the use of the storage space at a self-service storage facility by sending a preliminary lien notice by certified mail to the occupant's last known address, as defined to mean the address provided by the occupant, as specified. This bill, until January 1, 2021, would authorize the notice to be sent by electronic mail and would revise the definition of last known address to include a mailing address and email address provided by the occupant, as specified, and make conforming changes. (2) Existing law deems a lien to attach if the notice has been sent and the total sum due has not been paid within 14 days of the termination date specified in the preliminary lien notice and authorizes the owner to deny the occupant access to the space, enter the space, and remove property to a place of safekeeping. Existing law requires the owner to send to the occupant's last known address a notice of lien sale and a blank declaration in opposition to the lien sale. This bill, until January 1, 2021, would deem the lien to attach if the notice has been sent and the total sum due has not been paid by the specified termination date. (3) Existing law specifies procedures for an owner to enforce the lien by the sale of the stored property. These procedures require an advertisement of the sale to be published for 2 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the judicial district where the sale is to be held. They also require the sale to be conducted in a commercially reasonable manner. The bill would define a commercially reasonable manner of sale to include, but not be limited to, an in-person auction or on a prescribed Internet Web site.