self_storage_facility_operations v1.0.0

name: self_storage_facility_operations description: "Run a self storage facility with the lien process treated as a legal deadline system: move in paperwork and identity checks, a rent and late fee ladder applied the same way every month, delinquency notices and lien sale steps tracked against your own state self storage statute, gate and access issue handling, and auction records that close the file cleanly. Triggers when someone runs or manages a self storage facility, handles a delinquent unit, prepares a lien notice or storage auction, builds a delinquency timeline, or asks what to do about an unpaid unit, an overlock, or a tenant who stopped paying."

Self Storage Facility Operations

Purpose

A self storage facility runs on two systems that have to agree. The first is the daily operation: move-ins, rent, gate access, and clean move-outs. The second is the lien process, a state statute with strict notice, waiting, advertising, and sale steps where one missed step can turn a routine auction into a wrongful sale claim. Facility software handles the first system well. It does not supply the second. It will happily show a unit as ready to sell because a number of days passed, without checking whether the notice contents, the sending method, the advertisement, the military check, or the bankruptcy check ever happened.

This skill supplies the second system and ties it to the first. It builds a state profile from the operator's own statute, tracks every delinquent unit against that profile with a date tool that also stops on hard blockers, and closes each file with a sale record that proves what was done. The worked sample runs seven units at once and returns seven different answers, from ready for sale to blocked on a bankruptcy filing. That spread is normal in a real delinquency list, and handling it one unit at a time is the whole job.

This skill is operations support, not legal advice. It teaches a disciplined process and a deadline method. A facility's first lien sale under a new profile, any sale involving a servicemember, a bankruptcy, a titled vehicle, or a disputed lien, and any question about what a statute means, goes to a lawyer who practices in that state.

Workflow

1. Build the state profile before touching a delinquent unit. Copy references/sample-profile.json, replace every value from the current text of your state self-service storage facility act, cite the statute in the profile notes, and record the date you checked it. The profile holds the demand period, the advertisement count, the minimum days from first advertisement to sale, and any minimum default period the act sets. Read references/lien-workflow.md for how states differ in structure, not just in numbers: some use one lien notice, some use a preliminary notice and then a sale notice, and some give the occupant a hearing or opposition step in between. If your act has a step the profile has no field for, add it to your facility checklist as a blocker. Never borrow another state's numbers because they look close.

1. Run move-in as the start of the lien file. Follow the move-in checklist in references/notices-and-records.md: verify photo identification, use an agreement with the lien disclosure worded and formatted as your act requires, collect the alternate contact in the space the agreement provides, ask for lienholder disclosure and record the answer, ask military status and record it, test the contact details while the occupant is at the counter, cover prohibited items, handle tenant insurance or a protection plan honestly, and issue a unique gate code. A missing alternate contact or a missing lien disclosure can weaken or defeat the lien months later, when nobody remembers the move-in.

1. Apply one rent and late fee ladder, the same way every month. The ladder lives in the agreement: due date, grace and late fee day, reminder, access denial or overlock day, then the lien notice step. Apply the late fee exactly as written and only if it complies with any state late fee cap or safe harbor in your profile. Log every courtesy contact. Courtesy contact never substitutes for a statutory notice. Any exception gets a written reason in the ledger. Full ladder detail sits in references/notices-and-records.md.

1. Track delinquency with the tool, not with memory. Keep one row per delinquent unit in a CSV using the columns in references/sample-units.csv and run:

python3 bin/lien_tracker.py units.csv profile.json --as-of YYYY-MM-DD

It prints each unit sorted by urgency with its stage, demand deadline, earliest sale date under the profile, blockers, and next action. Use --format json when another system needs the data. Run it weekly for the whole list and on the day of any planned sale. A stage of READY_FOR_SALE means the profile dates line up. It does not replace the pre-sale checklist in step 7.

1. Send the lien notice as a legal document, not a reminder. Before sending, re-check the occupant address against the agreement and any written update, re-check the itemized amount, and complete the pre-notice checks in references/lien-workflow.md: military status, bankruptcy signals, titled vehicle, and agreement completeness. Include every element your act lists. The recurring elements across states are an itemized statement of the claim with the date it became due, a description of the property matching the agreement, a demand for payment within the stated time, a conspicuous statement that the property will be advertised and sold if the claim is not paid, and the owner or agent name, street address, and phone number. Send it to every person the act requires, by a method the act allows, and record the date, method, address, and proof the same day.

1. Respect blockers the moment they appear. Set the matching CSV field the day any of these arrives and hold that unit: a bankruptcy filing or notice (the federal automatic stay stops collection, notices, advertising, and sale, and the next steps run through bankruptcy counsel, starting with a proof of claim and, if advised, a request for relief from the stay); a servicemember occupant with no court order on file (federal law bars enforcing a storage lien during military service and for 90 days after, without a court order granted first); a dispute, hearing request, or opposition declaration; a titled vehicle or watercraft with no lienholder notice recorded; or unknown military status on a unit that has reached sale readiness. A blocker on one unit does not stop the rest of the list. It stops that unit completely until it clears in writing.

1. Advertise, inventory, and run the pre-sale checklist. Advertise only after the demand period expires unpaid, exactly as the act requires on medium, count, spacing, and content, and record each date in the tracker. Cut the lock only when the timeline allows, with a witness, photograph the unit before touching anything, and write the inventory from what is visible. Describe sealed or locked containers as containers and do not open them. Then run the pre-sale checklist in references/notices-and-records.md for that one unit, on the sale day, including a same day check for payments, bankruptcy papers, and disputes. Any failed item stops that unit's sale.

1. Sell in a commercially reasonable manner and handle the money by the book. Sell by public sale or auction after proper notice and advertising, at the time, place or website, and terms that were advertised. If the occupant pays the full amount needed to satisfy the lien plus reasonable sale expenses before the sale, stop and return the property. Apply proceeds in the order the act specifies, then handle any surplus exactly as the act directs: notice to the occupant, a hold period, and the stated route for unclaimed surplus. Record any deficiency without improvising a collection plan for it.

1. Close the file, then re-rent the unit. Complete the sale day record in references/notices-and-records.md: proceeds, expenses, amount applied, surplus or deficiency, buyer record, and the proof copies saved. For units that end without a sale, close with the payment record, the surrender record, or the dispute outcome, as the case requires. Inspect and photograph the emptied unit, note damage, and mark it ready for re-rent only after the record is complete.

1. Handle gate and access issues from logs, not impressions. Work access problems in the order in references/notices-and-records.md: identity verification before any code reissue, account status before assuming a gate fault, access log and camera review before any accusation of code sharing or tailgating, property security first when a gate fails, and a written after hours policy for lockouts. Review the access log weekly for anomalies, including attempts on overlocked units, and investigate that week.

Output Contract

Each tracker run and sale cycle produces:

• A unit table sorted by urgency: unit, occupant, amount due, default date, demand deadline, earliest sale date, stage, and the next action for that unit.
• A blockers section naming every open blocker or warning by unit, in plain language, including unknown military status warnings.
• For any unit sold, a completed sale day record with proceeds, expenses, surplus or deficiency handling, and the list of proof copies saved in the file.
• For any unit resolved without a sale, a closing record: payment and access restoration, surrender, or dispute outcome.
• A profile note stating which state act and which checked date the deadlines in the run came from.

Operating Rules

• The state statute is the only source of deadlines. Every day count, notice method, recipient, advertisement rule, and surplus period comes from the facility's own state profile, built from current statute text. If a number is not in the profile, it does not get used, guessed, or carried over from another state or from habit.
• Never state a timeline as national. Demand periods, access denial timing, minimum default periods, and surplus hold periods all vary by state, and some states structure the process in two notices where others use one.
• A missed or defective step is not cured by the occupant owing the money. If a notice, advertisement, or required recipient was wrong, restart that step correctly or get counsel direction. Do not sell on a file you already know is defective.
• Military and bankruptcy checks are part of every sale, not a special case. Record how military status was checked, check again close to the sale, and treat any sign of a bankruptcy filing, including a statement from the occupant, as a stop until counsel or a records check resolves it.
• Keep descriptions honest and matched across documents. The agreement description, the lien notice description, the advertisement, and the sale listing should describe the same property in the same general terms. Never open sealed containers to write a better listing, and never list items you did not see.
• Apply fees and access rules evenly. A fee not in the agreement does not get charged, a state cap beats the agreement amount, and any one-off exception gets a written reason in the ledger the day it happens.
• Keep personal data in the file to what the process needs: occupant contact details for notices, identification check records, and sale records. Do not put full identification numbers, payment card details, or unrelated personal information in the tracking CSV.
• This skill is not legal advice and does not replace the facility's lawyer or its state self storage association resources. Use it to run a clean process and to know exactly when to stop and ask.