Alternate Contacts

When you rent a storage unit, you are entitled to add an alternate contact to your account. It’s your storage unit and you likely don’t think it’s necessary. Read further to learn more about when an alternate contact for you storage unit comes in handy.

What’s The “Real” Definition of An Alternate Contact Anyway?

An alternate contact seems pretty obvious at first glance. To comply with state statutes an alternate contact:

• Cannot have the same phone number as the person who rented the storage unit
• Cannot have the same address as the person who rented the storage unit

An alternate contact for your storage unit can live in another state. The most common people that someone uses as an alternate for their unit include:

• Family member
• Relative
• Close personal friend
• Co worker

When Does An Alternate Contact Come In Handy?

An alternate contact is helpful in the following situations:

• The person renting the storage unit dies
• The person renting the unit moves, and does not provide us an updated address
• Their phone number is changed

We get calls monthly from people in the Appleton and Neenah areas. A family member dies and they knew this person was renting a storage unit somewhere in the Fox Valley. They just make random calls trying to locate their unit. If the unit has gone delinquent for several months it may be too late as the contents may have already been auctioned off. Without an alternate, items important to your family can be forfeited and never recovered.

In some cases a person moves and all of their contact information changes, or there are incarcerated. Several months pass without a payment being received at our office. The storage unit reaches the lien stage and the contents of the unit are auctioned to recover some of the lost income. In both of the above cases an alternate contact for your storage unit could easily help our attempts to reach out to you to be more effective.

You now know exactly what an alternate contact is, and how it can help you. It only takes a minute to provide this information when you rent your unit, and we hope you take the time to do this.  If you have further questions, or want to rent a storage unit in Appleton or Neenah give us a call at 920-734-1265.