Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) continue to outperform major indexes and the self storage REITs in particular are enjoying a positive run on Wall Street spurred by solid cash flows, among other factors.
A United States District Court judge for the Northern District of Illinois has ruled, in Johnson v. PS Illinois Trust, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17769, that the Illinois Self-Service Storage Facility Act does not violate the due process protections of the United State Constitution.
Whether your occupant moves out voluntarily, your facility forecloses on the occupant's space, or your facility terminates an occupant's lease because he/she violated a provision of your rental agreement, your facility should store the occupant's file either on-site or off-site for six (6) years. In Washington, an individual may file a breach of contract claim within six (6) years of having knowledge of, or should have known of, the issue for which such a claim is made. Therefore, it is in your best interest, as the owner/operator/manager of the facility, to keep all the records of the occupant's file together for six (6) years. Whether you keep these documents in hard copy or electronic form is at your discretion. Be sure that you set your policy on record retention and then follow that policy on record destruction when the time to hold the documents expires!
Between 2000 and 2006, the growth of self storage outpaced the growth of the U.S. population by more then 50%. The data, available to SSA members as part of its quarterly Facts & Trends Report, points to 61% growth of self storage capacity in the same period that the population of the U.S. grew by 7%. Of the 945 markets in the country according to US census, 253 markets reported declining population between 2000 and 2006, while the other 692 markets reported population growth ranging from 0.1% to over 53% (Palm Coast, FL). Trends, according to the US Census, show a shifting of population from the northern state markets to those in the south, southeast and west. In declining population markets however, self storage capacity increased by 61%. This indicates that self storage developers continue to add capacity at a significant pace even in areas with a shrinking population. Look for more research and data in SSA's Q2 Facts & Trends Report, which will be available in coming weeks.
