eKourier July 2016

FEATURES

Holding Keys And Codes For Locks, A Risky Business H olding keys or knowing the code to a customer’s lock on their storage space has been happening for many years. Most at fault. If the customer decides to take KSS to court to recover their losses and the customer is successful this will set a precedent across the industry that Self Storage is a bailment relationship.

don’t cause the distress and impairments that are part of hoarding disorder.

Risk factors include:

• Age. Hoarding usually starts around ages 11 to 15, and it tends to get worse with age. Younger children may start saving items, such as broken toys, pencil nubs, outdated school papers and broken appliances. Hoarding is more common in older adults than in younger adults. • Personality. Many people who have a hoarding disorder may also have a temperament that includes indecisiveness. • Family history. There is a strong association between having a family member who has a hoarding disorder and having the disorder yourself. • Stressful life events. Some people develop hoarding disorder after experi- encing a stressful life event that they had difficulty coping with, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, eviction or losing possessions in a fire. • Social isolation. People with a hoarding disorder are typically socially withdrawn and isolated. In many cases, the hoarding leads to social isolation. But, on the other hand, some people may turn to the comfort of hoarding because they’re lonely. Hoarders also get into a lot of arguments with family members regarding the clutter and often feel depressed or anxious due to the clutter. Other examples of hoarding are animal, and bibliomania (book) hoarding. Even though it is not clear what causes a hoarding disorder, genetics, brain chemistry and stressful life events are being studied as possible causes. The early detection of a storage hoarder at our facilities is important. Even though our ‘Kennards’ storage hoarders may be good for business in the short term, but it may also be bad for business in the long term when delinquency procedures occur and more life stresses for the storage hoarder happen. Wayne Birch Operations Manager VIC

people feel that holding the odd key or code to a customer unit is not a big risk and good for customer service. What can possible go wrong when we are simply helping a customer with their storage space? You may be surprised, that access by holding keys or combination to just one unit can change the laws of storage as we know them and expose KSS to financial risk. I would like to share a story with you that shows how one act of kindness at a centre can have a big impact on the industry; There was an ‘alleged’ break in at one of our storage centres last month. The customer notified the Team that her combination lock was found open on her door and the door open. She did not allow us to take the proper steps required to investigate the theft and moved out of the unit soon after. The customer insured their goods for $20,000 and followed with a claim for almost $19,000 loss. The insurer, declined this insurance claim because there was no forceful entry into the storage unit, which forms part of the insurance Terms and Conditions. The insurer notified us that the centre held the code to the customer’s combina- tion lock and this has created an issue with regard to duty of care, because the Storage Agreement conditions stipulate that the Storer is solely responsible for securing the unit and goods therein. Having access to this storage unit puts the company in a bailment position. In this case, because the customer has alleged a loss through theft, the company now carries the risk for this loss. Should the customer now make a claim against us, we are required to prove that KSS is not

The Storage Hire Agreement is a licenced use of space whereby the storer places their own items into that space, secures the space, and maintains the only key(s) or means of access to that space, thus denoting a licenced use of space which is vastly different and is definitely not a bailment situation. It only protects us from bailment conditions providing we follow the Terms of the Agreement. One important element of this is not having access to the space. By holding keys and codes we are breaking one of the most important Clauses of the Agreement. No Access to the Space means the customer is required to prove that the Self-Storage Operator is at fault. Access to the Space, the Self-Storage Operator bears the burden of proof that they are at fault. Proving you are not at fault is extremely difficult and often impossible, for this reason we should never have access to a customer’s space the risk is just too great. For Kennards, we choose to hold keys or codes and accept the additional risk for our National Account customers. National Accounts live under a separate National Agreement that acknowledges bailment and therefore protects the Self Storage Agreement from scrutiny before the courts. So we ask you to consider how many keys and codes you have at your centre; what’s your risk and what will you do to remove it? Lynda Walsh Operations Manager NSW/SA

13 Kennards Kourier July 2016