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It’s official: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has approved of the lien amendments for which the California Self Storage Association (in conjunction with the Self Storage Association [SSA]) has fought.  All of a sudden, it’s going to be a lot easier for California’s 3,890 self storage facilities to settle the lien disputes they occasionally have with their tenants.  For the self storage facilities, this means that lien notices can now be mailed with simple, cheap certificates of mailing, and that legal disputes pertaining to liens can now be settle in small claims court.  All in all, California’s self storage industry is going to save about $10 million in the coming year—quite a hefty sum, if you ask this author.

But where, exactly, does this leave consumers—those who, for a variety of reasons, fall behind on their rent?  To answer this question simply, you might say that rent payments—timely rent payments, mind you—are becoming all the more important.  Tenants can no longer rely on high attorney fees and months of wasted time (hence, wasted potential rent money) to escape from their debts.

Really, though, there’s no reason for prospective self storage tenants to worry about having liens exercised on their property—not if they’re willing to do a little bit of prep work before they sign their rental agreements.  Collected, here, are a few bits of advice regarding how you, the consumer, might save some extra money (an emergency fund, if you will) before you agree to a self storage lease.

Be sure that you’re signing up for a month-to-month rental.  Unless you have the money up-front, then you’re not going to want to lock yourself into any sort of long-term contract.  Particularly when you’ve just lost your home or your job, you can never be sure when your monthly budget is going to take at turn for the worse.  By restricting yourself to month-to-month leases, you can be sure that you are never going to fall behind by multiple months at a time.  If you know that you are not going to be able to make next month’s payment, simply gather your belongings and move out of your unit on time.  Surely, you’ll be able to find other accommodations if you put your mind to it.

Consider having a garage sale before you rent your self storage unit.  When you sell the belongings that you don’t really need to keep, you’re simply raising some extra cash for your self storage rental.  Of course, it bears mentioning that selling your belongings means that you’re going to have a lot less to store in the first place.  You’ll be able to rent a smaller unit for the belongings that you really need to keep, thereby cutting your monthly payments down to something a bit more manageable.

Shop around and pay attention to moving specials.  If you’re not writing down the special offers that come your way, you’re throwing your money away.  You don’t have to settle with the first facility that offers you a decent special, though.  Continue calling around and get a firm grip on where the best deals are to be had.  By the end of the day, you’ll know where to spend your hard-earned money.

With California’s self storage community set to save such a vast amount of money from these lien amendments, you should certainly be able to find a facility that’s willing to work within your budget.

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