Bill description: SB 1264 amends Idaho Code relating to self-service storage facilities. 

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Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market? 

SB 1264 restricts the rights enjoyed by owners of self-service storage facilities to set their own late payment fees. Under this bill, fees for late payments can only be “twenty dollars ($20.00) or twenty percent (20%) of the monthly rent, whichever is greater.” It has no grandfather clause for existing rental agreements that may have already set different fees. 

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However, SB 1264 does give a lot of clarification regarding what operators of self-service storage facilities can do. For instance, it clarifies that operators do not need to hold an auctioneer’s license to conduct a lien sale, and makes it clear that they can sell the entire contents of a storage unit or only parts of it. It also allows operators to call a towing company to take a vehicle or trailer stored by an evicted client off the property, as long as they send the former lessee a notice of the name of the towing company.

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SB 1264 also removes the requirement that operators of self-service storage facilities send out a notice of a lien through the mail. It allows them to provide such a notice through whatever method the operator and renter agreed to in their lease agreement. And the bill reduces the required number of subsequent public notices (to be published in a newspaper) from two to one. 

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