Storage Units

Vermont law says that if you are late on the rent by seven days, the owner has to send you a letter that says you are behind on the rent. If you still don’t pay the rent, then the owner will send you a second notice by certified mail.

That second notice needs to contain an itemized bill and a description of the property you have in the storage unit. The notice must also let you know that you are being locked out of the storage unit. The owner can demand payment within a specified time that cannot be less than 15 days from the date they send the notice. The notice from the owner will also warn you that if you do not pay on time your property will be advertised for sale. It will be sold to pay the rent that you owe.

You can stop the sale of your property by paying the amount due by the date listed on the notice. If you don’t pay, the owner can sell it all. The sale is considered fair if:

• you received notice about the sale, and
• the sale was advertised in a local newspaper once a week for two weeks in a row, and
• the sale takes place 15 days or more after the first advertisement of the sale.

If you did not receive notice or the sale was not advertised, you can sue the owner of the self-storage unit for damages.

If you abandon an apartment and you leave behind some of your property, your landlord might put your property in a storage unit. The landlord needs to send you a notice to your last known address. It will say that the landlord will get rid of your property after 60 days.

You can get your property back within 60 days if you:

• give your landlord a reasonable description of the property you left behind, and
• pay the landlord a “fair and reasonable” cost of storage and any related reasonable expenses incurred by the landlord.

A landlord only has to store your property if you abandon or walk away from an apartment. The landlord does not have to store your property if you have been evicted or if you gave notice that you were leaving.