Thanks to your assistance, House Bill 1756 passed the House unanimously!

The bill is now in the state Senate.

We need to act quickly to ensure that the bill reaches Governor Wolf.

You can help in two ways:

1. Please call or email the state Senator(s) for your home and business. Your message is simply: tell them who you are and ask them to support HB1756.
2. Please contribute to PASSA’s political action committee by sending a check to:

PA Self Storage PAC, 908 N 2nd Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102.

Your contributions help PASSA to strengthen its relationships with key decisionmakers in Harrisburg.

We need you to voice your support for House Bill 1756.

Please call or email your state representative today and ask him or her to support House Bill 1756. Click HERE.

The bill is expected to be voted on by the House September 16, 2020. PASSA members are urged to call or email the state representatives whose districts cover their homes and businesses and ask those representatives to support HB1756.  

The Pennsylvania Self Storage Association supports HB1756, which is a continuation in PASSA’s efforts to modernize the self storage lien law. Following negotiations with members of the House Commerce Committee, HB1756: 

• reduces the number of lien sale advertisements that must be published in a newspaper;
• establishes a late fee safe harbor of $20 or 20% of rent, whichever is greater; and
• expressly authorizes online lien sales. 

Questions?

Contact Joe Doherty, SSA SVP Chief Legal & Legislative Officer

703.575.8000x123 or email jdoherty@selfstorage.org

Click HERE to read the full communication sent on September 3, 2020. 

As a PASSA member you have access to a large library of information, resources and legal help related to preparing and navigating through disasters.

Click here to access the complete library on the national SSA website. Topics include:

·         Price Gouging Laws

·         Emergency Preparedness

·         Water and Humidity

·         Insurance

·         Legal Help, Self Storage Legal Network , Affiliate Plan

·         Communication Plan and More!

Click here for your state’s emergency management agency.

Click here for the complete communication that was sent to members. 

We need you to voice your support for House Bill 1756.

Click Here to Find and Contact Your State Representative

Please call or email your state representative today and ask him or her to support House Bill 1756.

The bill is expected to be voted on by the House. PASSA members are urged to call or email the state representatives whose districts cover their homes and businesses and ask those representatives to support HB1756.

The Pennsylvania Self Storage Association supports HB1756, which is a continuation in PASSA’s efforts to modernize the self storage lien law. Following negotiations with members of the House Commerce Committee, HB1756:

• reduces the number of lien sale advertisements that must be published in a newspaper;
• establishes a late fee safe harbor of $20 or 20% of rent, whichever is greater;
• allows operators to deny access when the tenant is in default for at least 5 days (down from the current 20 days); and
• expressly authorizes online lien sales.

Questions?

Contact Joe Doherty, SSA SVP Chief Legal & Legislative Officer

703.575.8000x123 or email jdoherty@selfstorage.org

NEW - PASSA 2020 Events

The PASSA is working to provide you with opportunities for networking, access to education, and is your source of news and information. 

As a member of  the PASSA, we are offering FREE networking Zoom meetings with legal and legislative updates, a live Q & A to get your questions answered and, for you to share your recent experiences navigating through the pandemic with fellow owner-operators.  Member only invitations are sent to your email address.  Not a member, click HERE to join. 

The PASSA will be joining the New Jersey SSA for a regional meeting on December 3, 2020 at the Lehigh Valley Hotel and Conference Center in Bethlehem, PA. Please keep a look out for the meeting program and how register.

These events are a fantastic opportunity for storage owners, operators and managers to network and discuss what is happening across the state.  We hope to see you there and online!

Health Department Order Mandates Protective Measures

The Pennsylvania Secretary of Health issued an order that mandates self storage operators and other essential businesses implement protective measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The order took effect on April 19.

Pennsylvania operators are strongly encouraged to read the full text of the order here. The order requires businesses that have maintained in-person operations to do the following, in addition to several other requirements:

Provide a mask to each employee and mandate that each employee wear a mask while on the work site. The employee may wear his or her own mask if meets Department of Health guidance.

1. Require customers to wear masks while within a building or defined area and turn away customers that refuse to do so, unless due to a medical condition.
2. Place signage throughout the site explaining the social distancing mandates.
3. Establish protocols to address the business’ response if it is discovered that the business has been exposed to a person with a probable or confirmed case of COVID-19. The order further explains several steps that the business must take in the event of an exposure.

Please email Joe Doherty with any questions. Please visit the SSA News page for the latest national news affecting the self storage industry, including the new federal leave law and the Paycheck Protection Program.

Pa. Governor Allows Storage Businesses to Remain Open During State of Emergency

By this time, you have probably heard of Governor Wolf’s order allowing only “life sustaining businesses” to remain open. Storage is specifically listed as a life-sustaining business on page 3 of this document accompanying the Governor’s order. Therefore, storage businesses are allowed, but not required to, remain open.

Businesses that remain open must follow the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control to protect workers and patrons. You can find more information here.

Please email Joe Doherty with any questions.

 

COVID-19

The national SSA has many resources and webinars available focused on COVID-19 and our industry.  Click here to access news about COVID-19 and self storage.  Invitations to register for the webinars are being sent to state and national members, specifically, the primary contact's email address.

The self storage community was to have met this week in San Antonio for the 2020 SSA Spring Conference & Trade Show. Since our March 5^th announcement to change course, this cancellation has been overshadowed by the significant disruptions to our personal and professional lives, with many uncertainties remaining in the near and long-term.

COVID-19 developments are evolving rapidly and, in many cases, are unique to the respective localities and states of our members, or the federal government. Below are some updates regarding the Self Storage Association’s response, as well as links to current information on challenges affecting our sector.  Click HERE to read the complete letter and access more information. 

Congratulations to 2020 PASSA Manager of the Year

Stan Roof, Kwik Stor Self Storage

Excerpt taken from one of three nomination forms: 

"Stan is an incredible individual to work with. He has adapted from the "mom and pop" mentality of a manager where you need to give everything away to a customer to a modern day manager using all of the technology we have for the betterment of his customers and the facility. I will give you a prime example, when I 1st started working with Stan and we were talking about offering tenant insurance and he was like, they will never take it. The customer will walk out the door. Well we started and the store was averaging 80& policies but no real upgraded ones. We worked thru out the year and in the 4th quarter the new polices were averaging 93% of new rentals, but the upgraded policies were averaging 91%!!! Also, we implemented the Veritec program for value pricing and in the beginning same old story, would not work. But over time this program also had a major impact in the overall development of the store. This store has always been a highly occupied store, December 2018 they had 71,210 occupied square feet for 94.1%, December 2019 we were actually down 746 square feet for the year, HOWEVER we all know the name of the game is revenue, the effective rate after concessions GREW $3,391.00 per month. So lower occupied square forage (not by much) but higher rates are a win win for everyone!!! Plus, we have units to rent!!!! Stan has been at this store for 12 years and has developed an amazing relationship with the customers and community. Now he comes to work and is excited to see how many units he has to rent, how many rate increases he can send out. One comment he made was "Now that I understand the reports and the programs, it is easier for him to sell the product to his customers!

Stan is the proud Father of 3 and Grandfather of 5 and married to his best friend Cindy. He was a fire chief for 8 years and firefighter for 20, he is also an ordained minister, and president of the Baron Stiegel Lions Club for 2 years. Previously, he worked for Hershey Entertainment and Resorts for 15 years and is retired from Conestoga Valley School District, Stan is currently working for Murrell Court Partners (Kwik Stor Self Storage) for 12 years he has helped grow the business at this facility. He also runs two other facilities out of the Kwik Stor Office. We run the Ephrata Self Storage and the Susquehanna Valley Self Storage remotely from the Kwik Stor office. He also finds time for his favorite thing to do is spend time with my family, hunt, fish, and collect guns. Blessed each and every day to have such an amazing family, Stan loves the fact that he can go to work and actually enjoy doing what he does and love the owners and managers. Surround yourself with good people and good things will happen to you."