You fell behind by a month, maybe two. You’d emailed them. Then you turned up to the unit and it was empty, or you got a one-line email saying your goods had been “disposed of in accordance with the agreement”. Your furniture, your kids’ baby photos, your late father’s tools, gone, and they’re still telling you that you owe them fees.
Self-storage operators can sell uncollected goods to recover unpaid fees. But they can only do it by following a specific legal process, and a lot of them don’t. When they skip steps, they’re liable for everything they sold.
Your rights
- Uncollected goods laws. Each state has legislation that governs how a business holding your goods can dispose of them: the Uncollected Goods Act 1995 (New South Wales), Part 4.2 of the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012 (Victoria), the Disposal of Uncollected Goods Act 1967 (Queensland), the Disposal of Uncollected Goods Act 1970 (Western Australia), the Unclaimed Goods Act 1987 (South Australia), and equivalents elsewhere. They require written notice to you, a minimum waiting period (which increases with the value of the goods), and in some cases a court order or a public notice before sale. Goods above certain values can’t be sold without a court or tribunal order at all.
- The storage agreement doesn’t override the Act. Most operators use the Self Storage Association of Australasia standard agreement, which itself sets out notice periods and a process. If they didn’t follow their own contract or the Act, the sale was unlawful.
- Conversion. Selling or destroying someone’s property without lawful authority is conversion. Damages are the full value of the goods, not the amount you owed.
- Surplus must be returned. Even where a sale was lawful, the operator can only keep the fees and reasonable sale costs. Anything above that is yours, and they must account for it.
- Unfair contract terms (ss 23–28 ACL) for clauses that purport to let them dispose of goods on short notice, or waive their liability entirely.
What to do right now
- Demand the paper trail in writing. Copies of every notice they say they sent (with dates and the address used), proof of postage or delivery, the date of sale or disposal, the method (auction, private sale, tip), the buyer, the amount received, and an itemised list of what was in the unit. Ask for it within 7 days. Their inability to produce it is your case.
- Reconstruct your inventory. Photos of the unit, moving lists, receipts, insurance schedules, bank statements for big purchases. Estimate replacement value item by item. Be honest and thorough; this figure is the claim.
- Check the notice requirements for your state. Compare their timeline to the Act. Most failures are one of: notice sent to an old address they knew was wrong, notice period too short for the value of the goods, no public notice where required, or sale without an order where one was required.
- Stop paying and dispute the “outstanding fees”. In writing. A business that unlawfully disposed of your goods can’t also collect fees for storing them.
- Send a Letter of Demand. A formal letter citing the state Act, the specific breach, conversion, the itemised value, and a deadline before fair trading and the tribunal. Storage operators carry liability insurance and franchise-level legal support; a proper demand is what engages it.
- Escalate. State fair trading, then your civil tribunal (or the local court for larger claims).
Ready to put it in writing?
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1. Who owes you?
2. How much?
3. Do you have it in writing?
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Where they usually go wrong
- “We emailed you.” Some Acts require notice by post to your last known address; email alone may not be enough. Check.
- Selling too fast. A unit worth $15,000 in goods can’t be treated the same as a box of old clothes. Higher-value goods mean longer waiting periods and, in several states, a court order.
- “Disposed of” meaning “tipped”. Destroying saleable goods rather than selling them to recover the debt is very hard to justify and is treated as conversion of the full value.
- No accounting. If they sold your goods and can’t tell you for how much, assume the sale was at undervalue or didn’t happen at all.
What if you genuinely owed them money? You probably did, and that doesn’t change the analysis. The debt was for a few months’ storage, maybe a few hundred dollars. The goods were worth thousands. The law lets them sell to recover the debt, following the process, and return the surplus. It doesn’t let them keep or destroy everything because you were behind. In a tribunal, expect the operator to set off the unpaid fees against your claim, and the tribunal decides whether you are owed the difference. If they’re chasing you for fees on top of having disposed of your goods, you can dispute that counterclaim in the same proceedings.
Who to complain to
Your state fair trading body (NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Queensland OFT, Consumer Protection WA, CBS SA). The Self Storage Association of Australasia if the operator is a member. Your state civil tribunal for claims within its limit, or the local/magistrates court above it. If you believe goods were taken rather than sold, the police.
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What happens when you send a Letter of Demand
Same problem. What a prepared case looks like.