What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
I rented a self-storage unit for just over a year. Few things happened during the month of the move out (I'll try to make this as short as possible).
I had some used oil in the unit and the container started to leak unbeknown to me. It appearently crept into the other unit next to mine. I got a call from an unknown number and didn't answer it. It was the storage unit calling to tell me what happened. Thankfully I was already on my way there and was just 5 minutes away when I got the message. When I got there, they had cut my lock but hadn't even lifted my door up. I saw the oil spill and talked to the other storage unit owner and apologized. They weren't even upset, actually they were joking "if this is the worst thing that happens today, it's a good day". Nothing got damaged. I was charged the maximum fee of $100 for the cleanup. The owners son cleaned it up and was irate at me. As I was cleaning up my unit, he mentioned to the other units owner "the more angry we act, the more we can charge for cleanup". WOW.
Anyways, I was actually there to start moving out of my unit and the majority of my things were moved out that day. I spoke with the owner several days later when I came back to get the rest of my things. I apologized to him again and told him I was moving out. He said that as long as I clean up the residue that he wouldn't charge me a move-out fee. I went over the floor three times to ensure it was cleaned. I still got charged $50 clean up fee.
We had a few emails back and forth. He said that they had to degrease it and the whole floor needed new paint. In an earlier email he said that he repaints the floor each time they flip a unit. But it sounded like I was being charged to repaint the floor even though he says he was going to do it anyways. He also cut my access off to the unit earlier than my contract was (I went back to see the unit as he charged me the move-out fee before my contract was up and I couldn't even access it!). I asked him about this several times in a couple emails and he never would answer me. He just always kept saying "if this was any other storage company they would charge you $500". Yea.. right. There were some other shady stuff he did, but you get the gist.
Anyways, sorry for the rant. My main question here is the contract I signed stated the following:
"I (We) do hereby authorize Storage Unlimited to charge my credit card on file for monthly storage fee. I (We) acknowledge that the originator of these transactions to my (our) credit card must comply with the provisions of US Law."
I authorized him to charge my credit card for my monthly storage fee - not anything else (including the two cleaning fees he charged). Now the cleaning fees are in the contract, so not much I can do there. But did he illegal charge my credit card as I never gave him an authorization to charge anything to it other than my monthly rent? From how I'm seeing this is he should have sent me a bill/invoice for the cleaning charges, not automatically charge my CC.
Thoughts?
I rented a self-storage unit for just over a year. Few things happened during the month of the move out (I'll try to make this as short as possible).
I had some used oil in the unit and the container started to leak unbeknown to me. It appearently crept into the other unit next to mine. I got a call from an unknown number and didn't answer it. It was the storage unit calling to tell me what happened. Thankfully I was already on my way there and was just 5 minutes away when I got the message. When I got there, they had cut my lock but hadn't even lifted my door up. I saw the oil spill and talked to the other storage unit owner and apologized. They weren't even upset, actually they were joking "if this is the worst thing that happens today, it's a good day". Nothing got damaged. I was charged the maximum fee of $100 for the cleanup. The owners son cleaned it up and was irate at me. As I was cleaning up my unit, he mentioned to the other units owner "the more angry we act, the more we can charge for cleanup". WOW.
Anyways, I was actually there to start moving out of my unit and the majority of my things were moved out that day. I spoke with the owner several days later when I came back to get the rest of my things. I apologized to him again and told him I was moving out. He said that as long as I clean up the residue that he wouldn't charge me a move-out fee. I went over the floor three times to ensure it was cleaned. I still got charged $50 clean up fee.
We had a few emails back and forth. He said that they had to degrease it and the whole floor needed new paint. In an earlier email he said that he repaints the floor each time they flip a unit. But it sounded like I was being charged to repaint the floor even though he says he was going to do it anyways. He also cut my access off to the unit earlier than my contract was (I went back to see the unit as he charged me the move-out fee before my contract was up and I couldn't even access it!). I asked him about this several times in a couple emails and he never would answer me. He just always kept saying "if this was any other storage company they would charge you $500". Yea.. right. There were some other shady stuff he did, but you get the gist.
Anyways, sorry for the rant. My main question here is the contract I signed stated the following:
"I (We) do hereby authorize Storage Unlimited to charge my credit card on file for monthly storage fee. I (We) acknowledge that the originator of these transactions to my (our) credit card must comply with the provisions of US Law."
I authorized him to charge my credit card for my monthly storage fee - not anything else (including the two cleaning fees he charged). Now the cleaning fees are in the contract, so not much I can do there. But did he illegal charge my credit card as I never gave him an authorization to charge anything to it other than my monthly rent? From how I'm seeing this is he should have sent me a bill/invoice for the cleaning charges, not automatically charge my CC.
Thoughts?
