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Self Storage Business Expense

While overhead is relatively low in the self storage business,  it is still something to keep an eye on.  The prudent real estate investor will always pay attention to their expense line items and be sure to keep them under control.  In the current recession, it is even more important to evaluate the bills and keep those expenses down.

One of our self storage facilities recently received our property tax bill.  Upon close review, we realized that we were being charged $5 for television service!   When we called,  the person on the other end of the line said,

“Oh, we are trying to determine who uses our service.”

What?  You’ve got to be kidding me!

In order to get our refund, we have to fill out a form swearing to the fact that we do not use their television service.

On a much larger scale, a self storage owner recently received a bill for $8,000 – due to the mistake of the city!

Large or small, mistakes in billing occur all the time.  It is worth it to take the time to review all those charges and make sure they don’t contain errors.  Over time, it adds up thousands of dollars.

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Date: February 10th, 2009 @ 10:54

Author: Self Storage Millionaire

Categories: Expense

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Comments RSS TrackBack 5 comments

Roanoke Public Storage

in February 19th, 2009 @ 09:17

$8,000 dollars is a huge money, and its funny how they response with your call, it seems like they don’t know what they have sent you, I wonder what they may have done if you haven’t responded quickly to their charges.

Bilgefisher

in March 5th, 2009 @ 14:11

So what would happen if you sent them a bill for renting a storage unit? How would they respond. Or send them a bill for doing their administrative work for them. There has to be a way to turn this back on them in a dose of their own medicine.

That aside, point taken on never taking anything at face value.

Self Storage Millionaire

in July 23rd, 2009 @ 13:09

Bilge,

Send them a bill for a storage unit… what a funny idea! Would love to do that and see the response! Too funny.

Jim888

in August 23rd, 2010 @ 18:46

This is an OLD Billing Scam, here’s how it works.

You start a business that charges customers a monthly fee for something. For about a year you charge them the CORRECT amount.

After about 1 year, when most customers have stopped paying attention to their bills you tack on an extra $5.00 charge and call it an “Administrative fee” or a “use fee” or something like that.

The company charges 1000 customers $5.00 each = $5,000.

Most customers have automatic payment set up and don’t even LOOK at their bill each month, it’s automatically paid through their credit card or bank withdraw each month.

Now, perhaps 10% of the customers will complain and what you do is make them jump through a lot of hoops to get the money back. They have to take the time to fill out a “long and complicated” form to remove the charges and perhaps get a refund.

The company still makes $4,500 profit for a false service charge each month.

I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve seen companies pull this crap.

Matthew

in May 9th, 2011 @ 08:25

Here in England there is a similar Government sponsored scam. UK homeowners have to pay to have a TV licence. They are now trying to charge businesses for a TV licence too. We do not even have a TV. However, they are also stating downloading / streaming live TV from the internet counts too.
Just something for you all to watch out for.

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