The Storage Unit Nobody Knew Dad Had

While going through Dad’s bank statements, his daughter noticed the same $186.42 charge appearing every month. Nobody in the family recognized the company, and at first, they assumed it was another subscription, an insurance payment, or one of those services Dad had signed up for years ago and forgotten about.

Then she searched the company name and discovered it was a storage facility about twenty minutes away.

That was interesting, because as far as anyone in the family knew, Dad didn’t have a storage unit.

A quick phone call confirmed that he absolutely did, which immediately raised a much more interesting question: What in the world did Dad have in there?

Suddenly, a mysterious charge on a bank statement had turned into a new location containing an unknown amount of estate property, and everyone secretly hoped they were about to discover a pristine 1967 Corvette hiding under a tarp.

They probably weren’t going to be that lucky.

Storage units have a remarkable ability to collect all the things people couldn’t quite bring themselves to keep in the house but also couldn’t bring themselves to throw away. Old furniture, tools, holiday decorations, boxes from previous moves, childhood belongings, business records, photographs, sports equipment, and mysterious plastic tubs labeled with incredibly helpful descriptions such as “MISC” can accumulate for years.

For an executor, however, the contents can’t simply be dismissed as somebody else’s clutter because someone has to figure out what’s actually in there.

Family photographs could be mixed in with old Christmas decorations. Important paperwork might be sitting inside a filing cabinet. Tools or equipment could have significant value, while collectibles, furniture, business property, or personal belongings might need to be inventoried or distributed to family members.

Of course, there could also be forty-seven boxes of things Dad was definitely going to sort through someday, and “someday” has now landed squarely on the executor’s calendar.

Before anyone gets to the sorting, there’s another important detail to consider because the storage facility still expects to get paid.

Unlike the spare bedroom at Dad’s house, a storage unit comes with a monthly bill and a contract. If payments stop, the contents may not simply sit untouched indefinitely while the estate figures out what to do, which can put an unexpected clock on something nobody even knew existed a week earlier.

Now someone has to determine who is authorized to access the unit, locate the key or arrange another way to get inside, communicate with the storage company, review whatever agreement exists, and eventually decide what should happen to everything they find.

If Dad happened to rent more than one unit, the family has just unlocked the bonus round.

For attorneys and paralegals, situations like this are a good reminder of how much information can be hiding in ordinary financial records. A recurring payment may be nothing more than another expense that eventually needs to be canceled, but it can also point to property nobody has inventoried yet.

Storage units aren’t the only places where this happens. Safe deposit boxes, rented parking spaces, marina slips, workshops, garages, warehouses, and other rented spaces can all exist outside the family home. When nobody knew about them beforehand, a bank or credit card statement may provide the first clue that there is somewhere else the executor needs to look.

It’s one more reason settling an estate can sometimes feel less like following a checklist and more like doing detective work, because one answer has a funny way of producing three more questions.

The family started by wondering what the $186.42 charge was, and now they’re standing outside Unit 143 wondering what Dad kept behind that door.

Probate professionals already deal with enough surprises like these, so getting the bond shouldn’t feel like opening another mystery storage unit.

At Probate Bond Pros, we’ve worked to make our part of the process predictable in the best possible way. Our streamlined approach and two-hour guarantee are designed to help attorneys and paralegals get the bond handled quickly, without adding another round of phone calls and follow-ups to an already interesting day.

When your next case needs a probate bond, send that part our way. Click HERE to request your bond or call 727-748-2886, and let us help you move one more item from “need to deal with this” to “done.”

To your success,

Darren Vermost
The Bond Guy®