Bill Text: CA AB542 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Self-service storage facilities: lien sales.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-08 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 531, Statutes of 2023. [AB542 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB542-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  March 15, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 542

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Introduced by Assembly Member Juan Carrillo

February 08, 2023

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An act to amend Section 21707 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to business.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 542, as amended, Juan Carrillo. Self-service storage facilities: lien sales.

Existing law, the California Self-Service Storage Facility Act, specifies remedies and procedures for self-service storage facility owners when occupants are delinquent in paying rent or other charges, including through enforcement of a lien by the sale of the stored property. These procedures require an advertisement of the sale to be published once per week for 2 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the public notice district where the sale is to be held. Existing law requires, if there is no newspaper of general circulation in the public notice district where the sale is to be held, the advertisement to be posted at least 10 days before the sale in at least 6 conspicuous places in the neighborhood of the proposed sale.

This bill would instead require a single publication in a newspaper of general circulation in either the public notice district where the sale is to be held or in the county where the self-service storage facility is located. The bill would delete the above-described alternative that the advertisement be posted in at least 6 conspicuous places and would alternatively authorize an owner to satisfy these notice requirements by publishing an advertisement for the sale on an internet website that customarily conducts or advertises online auctions or sales. The bill would require the online advertisement to remain online for 7 days before the sale.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 21707 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

21707.

 (a) After the expiration of the time given in the notice of lien sale, pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 21705, or following the failure of a claimant to pay rent or obtain a court order pursuant to Section 21709, an advertisement of the sale shall be published before the sale once in a newspaper of general circulation published in the public notice district where the sale is to be held or in the county where the self-service storage facility is located. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, instead of publishing an advertisement for the sale in a newspaper of general circulation, an advertisement for the sale may be published on any publicly accessible internet website that customarily conducts or advertises online auctions or sales. The online advertisement shall remain online for seven days before the sale. The advertisement shall include a general description of the goods, the name of the person on whose account they are being stored, and the name and location of the storage facility. If there is no newspaper of general circulation published in the public notice district where the sale is to be held, the advertisement shall be posted at least 10 days before the sale in not less than six conspicuous places in the neighborhood of the proposed sale. The sale shall be conducted in a commercially reasonable manner. After deducting the amount of the lien and costs of sale, the owner shall retain any excess proceeds of the sale on the occupant’s behalf. The occupant, or any other person having a court order or other judicial process against the property, may claim the excess proceeds, or a portion thereof sufficient to satisfy the particular claim, at any time within one year of the date of sale. Thereafter, the owner shall pay any remaining excess proceeds to the treasury of the county in which the sale was held.

(b) For the purposes of this section, publication of notice in a public notice district is governed by Chapter 1.1 (commencing with Section 6080) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code. For the purposes of this section, a commercially reasonable manner of sale includes, but is not limited to, an in-person auction or a sale on a publicly accessible internet website that customarily conducts online auctions or sales.