2013 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 39 - Trade and Commerce
CHAPTER 20 - SELF-SERVICE STORAGE FACILITIES
SECTION 39-20-45. Enforcement of lien without judicial intervention.

If occupant has been in default continuously for fifty days, owner may enforce its lien, provided owner shall comply with, during the fifty-day default period, the following procedure.

The occupant must be notified in writing by delivery by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address of occupant. The owner also shall notify other parties with superior liens or security interests as defined in this rental agreement. The notice is presumed delivered when notice of delivery, failure to accept delivery, or the impossibility of delivery is received by owner.

Owner's notice to occupant shall include an itemized statement of the owner's claim showing the sum due, at the time of the notice, and the date when the sum became due. It shall briefly and generally describe the personal property subject to the lien. The description must be reasonably adequate to permit the person notified to identify it, except that any container included, but not limited to, a trunk, valise, or box that is locked, fastened, sealed, or tied in a manner which deters immediate access to its contents may be described as such without describing its contents. The inventory of any property taken under the provisions of this section must be done by the owner or the owner's agent with at least one other person present. Owner's notice shall notify occupant of denial of access to the personal property and provide the name, street address, and telephone number of the owner or its designated agent, whom the occupant may contact to respond to this notice.

Owner's notice shall demand payment within a specified time, not less than fourteen days after delivery of the notice. It shall state that, unless the claim is paid within the time stated in the notice, the personal property will be advertised for public sale to the highest bidder, and will be sold at public sale to the highest bidder at a specified time and place.

After the expiration of the fifty-day default period, the owner shall publish an advertisement of the public sale to the highest bidder once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation where the self-service storage facility is located. The advertisement shall include: a brief and general description of the personal property, reasonably adequate to permit its identification; the address of the self-service storage facility and the number, if any, of the space where the personal property is located, and the name of the occupant; and the time, place, and manner of the public sale. The public sale to the highest bidder shall take place not sooner than fifteen days after the first publication. If there is no newspaper of general circulation where the self-service storage facility is located, the advertisement must be posted at least fifteen days before the date of the public sale and in not less than six conspicuous places in the neighborhood where the self-service storage facility is located.

If no one purchases the property at the public sale and if the owner has complied with the foregoing procedures, the owner may otherwise dispose of the property and shall notify the occupant of the action taken. Any sale or disposition of the personal property must be held at the self-service storage facility or at the nearest suitable place to where the personal property is held or stored.

Before any sale or other disposition of personal property pursuant to this agreement, the occupant may pay the amount necessary to satisfy the lien and the reasonable expenses incurred, and by that action redeem the personal property and after that the owner shall have no liability to any person with respect to the personal property.

A purchaser in good faith of the personal property sold to satisfy owner's lien takes the property subject to any other liens or security interests which are perfected and recorded or liens by any lienholder with an interest in the property of whom the owner has knowledge either through the disclosure provision of the rental agreement or through other written notice.

In the event of a sale, the owner may satisfy his lien from the proceeds of the sale. The owner shall hold the balance of the proceeds, if any, for the occupant or any notified, secured interest holder. If not claimed within two years of the date of sale, the balance of the proceeds must be disposed of in accordance with Chapter 18 of Title 27. In no event may the owner's liability exceed the proceeds of the sale.

HISTORY: 1986 Act No. 460, Section 1, eff 30 days after approval by the Governor (Approved June 2, 1986).