My jurisdiction is: Ohio
My father recently decided to move out of two storage units he has been using, but only visited a couple of times, since 1997. He asked me to help him move the boxes of books, about 50 12 x 12 x 12 boxes divided evenly between two equal sized units, to our house. We arrived at the storage facility and noticed one of the units had a different padlock than the one my father than used securing the latch. We didn't think much of this, and decided to ask the facilities manager to cut the lock after we moved the boxes from the other unit. We returned to the locked storage unit with the manager about two hours later, and he proceeded to cut the padlock. He opens the unit, and to our supreme surprise, the unit is completely empty, even the wooden palette used to elevate the boxes off the ground to prevent water damage was gone. The manager expressed his surprise also, saying that unit had been secured with that lock since he had been working there, over three years ago.
Since then, the only conclusion I have been able to come to is that at some point in time in the past, the management of the storage facility had emptied the unit for some reason (there has never been any lapse in payment of the part of my father, him paying up until this month, or any notification about any such activity on the part of the facility). It just doesn't make sense that someone would climb the gate of the storage facility, and steal 25 boxes of books along with a wooden palette, and then close the unit and put a fresh lock (a fairly expensive, heavy-duty lock, which the storage facilities business office just happens to sell) on it. While the books are very conservatively worth about $2600 total (26 boxes X 50 books per box X $2 a book), selling them individually doesn't seem like a very reasonable criminal business model, especially considering the trouble in moving the boxes.
In the contract my father signed with storage facility contains this section:
Any help would be great.
As a quick post script, when I went to the storage facility to get a copy of the contract, they claimed that my father had completed move-out documentation and had been refunded a pro-rated portion of the rent. According to him, this never occurred. Considering my father was initially hesitant to press the issue of the missing books or rent for an empty storage unit in the first place, I tend to believe him in this instance.
My father recently decided to move out of two storage units he has been using, but only visited a couple of times, since 1997. He asked me to help him move the boxes of books, about 50 12 x 12 x 12 boxes divided evenly between two equal sized units, to our house. We arrived at the storage facility and noticed one of the units had a different padlock than the one my father than used securing the latch. We didn't think much of this, and decided to ask the facilities manager to cut the lock after we moved the boxes from the other unit. We returned to the locked storage unit with the manager about two hours later, and he proceeded to cut the padlock. He opens the unit, and to our supreme surprise, the unit is completely empty, even the wooden palette used to elevate the boxes off the ground to prevent water damage was gone. The manager expressed his surprise also, saying that unit had been secured with that lock since he had been working there, over three years ago.
Since then, the only conclusion I have been able to come to is that at some point in time in the past, the management of the storage facility had emptied the unit for some reason (there has never been any lapse in payment of the part of my father, him paying up until this month, or any notification about any such activity on the part of the facility). It just doesn't make sense that someone would climb the gate of the storage facility, and steal 25 boxes of books along with a wooden palette, and then close the unit and put a fresh lock (a fairly expensive, heavy-duty lock, which the storage facilities business office just happens to sell) on it. While the books are very conservatively worth about $2600 total (26 boxes X 50 books per box X $2 a book), selling them individually doesn't seem like a very reasonable criminal business model, especially considering the trouble in moving the boxes.
In the contract my father signed with storage facility contains this section:
While I believe I should be able to prove at the very least the storage facility should have notified my father that the storage unit was empty, and thus being more than within my rights to request the last three years rent (that is the earliest date we can prove the unit was empty as the manager confirmed as much after he has opened the unit) for the one unit be refunded, would their breach of contract in emptying the unit with no cause or notification to my father of their intent to do so (regardless of their reason for doing so) qualify as willful violation of law? Or would I have any legal justification for suing for any amount of money for the lost books?
Any help would be great.
As a quick post script, when I went to the storage facility to get a copy of the contract, they claimed that my father had completed move-out documentation and had been refunded a pro-rated portion of the rent. According to him, this never occurred. Considering my father was initially hesitant to press the issue of the missing books or rent for an empty storage unit in the first place, I tend to believe him in this instance.
