I have three paragraphs that I am wondering if it is legal in NC first of all and then secondly can we incorporate them in to our lease? We use your recommended lease and was wondering if legal in nc, can we incorporate in to the lease. I have an employee asking me these questions and have noted some thoughts of my own below each paragraph.
Delinquent Rent:
On the first (1) day of the month, if rent is unpaid, Owner will seal the delinquent rental unit. It is illegal for you to tamper with this over lock or enter the storage space at this time. The owner may, at their discretion, cut the lock to verify that the tenant has not vacated their unit. If the unit is vacant or abandoned it can then be re-rented. If the unit is not vacant, the owner may, at this time, move the contents to another location to be stored and the occupied agrees to be solely liable for any damage, lose or expense incurred by this action. At this point the Owner has a lien on the occupants property. If rent is delinquent for 3 months or more, the owner has the right to remove and dispose of contents of the storage space in any manner they deem to be appropriate. If this is done, all contents are forfeited and the occupant will still be liable for rents due prior to the removal of contents.
- I am understand that they must be more than 5 days late in NC and then follow the schedule for late fees and foreclosure in the current lease, is that correct or is this an option?
Miscellaneous:
Time is of the essence of this Rental Agreement and of each provision of this Rental Agreement. Words used in the singular shall include the plural where the context requires. All rights, powers, options and remedies give or granted to the Owner by this Rental Agreement or by law, are cumulative, and no one of them is exclusive of another. If any provision of this Rental Agreement is held by a court to be void or unenforceable, the other provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
- No real thoughts on this, it is a good point, as it is now, if a court found a portion of the lease unenforceable, is the whole thing voided, if so, this would be good to add.
No Oral Agreements:
This Rental Agreement contains the entire agreement between Owner and Occupant, and no oral agreement shall be of any effect whatsoever. Occupant agrees that he/she is not relying and will not rely, upon any oral representation made by Owner, or by any of owner’s agents or employees purporting to modify or add to this agreement in any way whatsoever. Occupant agrees that this agreement may be modified only in writing, signed by both parties, in order for such modification to have any effect whatsoever. Owners employees have been forbidden from providing any service on behalf of Owner. Should employees of Owner provide service at Occupants request, such employee shall be deemed to be agent of occupant regardless of whether payment for such service is made or not, and Occupant agrees to hold Owner harmless from all liability in connection with or arising from directly or indirectly, such services performed by employee of Owner.
- I guess this day and time, you must address all but I am thinking that oral is not an agreement at all – is this necessary?
Eddie Stallings on Thursday 03/30/2017 at 05:12 PM
I think Kevin is 100% correct. I think Scott Zucker put in a lot of effort to make sure we are legal.The lease is one of our best perks of being a member of the Association. I've tried not to alter our lease.
von cornelius on Friday 04/07/2017 at 12:26 PM
We have a very good lease but I like the idea of being more specific and elementary. I have thought of having a separate form to be signed along with the contract about delinquent rent. Very few actually read the entire contract and I try to explain it to new tenants as much as possible but a one page, large letters and basic English may help get the point across better.
Kevin Leebrick on Friday 04/07/2017 at 12:52 PM
Your right Von. I think in 8 years I've had 2 people actually scan through the entire lease. It's very uncommon. That being said, I think it's written and "dumbed down" as much possible to protect owners and managers. Remember at the end of the day, all that matters is that they signed and agreed to all provisions of the lease, whether they read it or not, that signature means their was a meeting of the minds. From and Owner/Manager stand point, I personally would rather have it longer and as detailed as possible to give me, my employees and the business itself the broadest array of protection as possible. Remember the lease is not there to "protect" the tenant per se but to outline the points of the contract and protect the business and its employees/principles. Although a one page, plain jane lease would be nice for the tenant, it could very well not give the business, owner and manager the protections needed to adequately protect from lawsuits and the like.
Super valid points you bring up though! Thanks!
Kevin Leebrick on Wednesday 04/12/2017 at 05:07 PM
Von. I think you were referring to a Rules and Regulations Sheet, an addendum almost. We use that to lay ground rules for each of our specific facility and they are modified for each. I think I misunderstood what you were talking about prior. Apologies.
Kevin Leebrick on Tuesday 03/28/2017 at 03:36 PM
I'm not an attorney. I personally don't edit my lease but add to my rules and regulations.
Pt.1. The law is clear here. You can't lock out of unit until day 5. However, Scott Zucker has said in the past you CAN lock out of gate 1 day past due.
Pt. 2. This is already addressed in the NCSSA lease.
Pt. 3. Since, technically, Self Storage is real estate, this is covered. Verbal agreements are not court enforcable unless both parties acknowledge such an agreement such an agreement.
It sounds like you are really getting into the weeds on some of this. Scott Zucker wrote and towards the end of 2016 renewed this lease to bring it up to times. He is one of the top 2-3 Self Storage Lawyers in the nation. I personally would think you would be doing your self a big disservice to change anything it in. Again if you do I would add it to your Rules and Regulations vs actually changing your lease. If you choose to change your lease, I would suggest consulting with counsel before beginning to use it.