You store things because you want to keep them in a safe place until you need them. But what happens when this space is infested with rodents?
In the case of a Wrigleyville woman, the warehouse locks you out.
She said rats destroyed thousands of dollars worth of items in her storage unit. Now her dream of becoming an adoptive mother has been cut short.
For as long as she can remember, Renata dreamed of being an adoptive mother. Renata is not her real name, but she asked us not to identify her for privacy reasons.
“There are so many beautiful children who just need a loving family, and I have the room in my house,” Renata said.
Earlier this year, Renata was finally approved as a foster parent. And while she considered finding a bigger home, she decided to move some furniture for her future foster children into Self Storage 1 in Wrigleyville.
“They had phenomenal reviews online,” Renata said, explaining why she chose the storage facility.
But before she locked her storage unit last summer, she noticed something.
“There were rat droppings as well as shredded cardboard box debris in the space,” Renata said. “And so immediately, I went down to the management office and spoke with the manager on duty. And at that point, she revealed that they were well aware of the rat infestation.
In a statement, Self Storage 1 Director of Operations Jennique Mason told NBC 5 Responds that the facility does not have a rat infestation – but rather – a mouse problem.
Mason said this was due to construction work behind the facility.
But Renata said a manager told her that flooding in the building was causing the rodent problem.
“The challenge in this case was that they were fully aware that the problem had been going on for at least six months and they never chose to contact me as a paying customer, which was extremely frustrating,” said Renata .
Renata said management offered three options: leave her items in the unit to be thrown out, find a mover and they could cover part of that cost or get a discounted rate on her rent for six months.
“So those were the only three options given, which for me just wasn’t enough, given that the furniture that I was literally going to use for these foster kids can no longer be used,” Renata said.
So Renata filed a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General and three days later, Self Storage 1 terminated her lease. She was told she had until November 8 to remove her belongings.
“And that’s when I noticed that Self Storage 1 had chosen to put an additional lock on my storage unit,” Renata said.
In a statement, Self Storage 1 told NBC 5 Responds: “We have made every effort to accommodate [Renata] under the terms of the rental contract she signed. We offered to credit her for several months of rent and we offered to fully cover all of her moving costs to relocate her to a new establishment. She refused what we offered her and instead chose to stay in her current unit and has now decided to take legal action against Self Storage 1.
Any business operating in Chicago that rents storage units to the public has the same vulnerability. We do our best to educate our tenants on what is appropriate to store and ask them not to store food. That being said, we ultimately have very little control over what tenants choose to store in their storage unit, which could potentially attract mice.
Now, Renata has no plans to take rodent-infested items out of her unit, even if she could get in. But she said the whole ordeal now posed a huge problem in her plans to give foster children a home.
“I now have to identify, when I move into this bigger house, how am I going to furnish it? So that was a setback for me, to be 100% transparent. It was disappointing, very heartbreaking. Life throws enough upsets at you already, and this was definitely a major one for me,” Renata said.
Self Storage 1, they have always done a regular monthly pest control and recently hired a rodent specialist to help them resolve the problem. Renata is now considering filing a lawsuit in small claims court.
There are a few things to remember here:
- When you rent from self-storage, you have to sign some pretty strict contracts. Be sure to read them.
- In most cases, these contracts stipulate that the value of your stored property should not exceed $5,000.
- You also agree that your property is stored at your own risk and you agree to hold the owner harmless if any items in your unit are lost or damaged.
- Finally, you may want to consider purchasing renters insurance for the home.
