Storage licence terms

These are the standard terms on which The Storage Zone Limited (company number SC372936, a company registered in Scotland) gives you a licence to store goods in one of its units. In these terms “we”, “us” and “our” mean The Storage Zone Limited. “You” means the person or business storing with us; your agreement may call you the occupier or licensee. “Unit” means the storage unit you use, “yard” means the site it is on, and “goods” means everything you keep in the unit. “Your agreement” means your signed storage licence agreement with us, including its Schedule. You are “in default” if you break your agreement or do not pay on time.

These terms are set out here so that you can read them before you book. They are the standard terms of the agreement you sign, which also has a Schedule: the page of key details that shows your unit, yard, licence fee, billing period, any deposit and your notice period. The terms on this page apply to every agreement made on or after the date above. Your signed agreement is the contract between us. If it says something different from this page, your signed agreement applies. You can ask us for a copy of it at any time.

Please read these terms before you book. If anything is unclear, contact us and we will explain it.

We give you a personal, non-exclusive licence to put your goods in a unit and keep them there while you pay the licence fee. It is a licence to occupy and nothing more. It is not a tenancy, a lease, or any other landlord-and-tenant relationship, it gives you no right in or over the land, and it does not give you exclusive possession of the unit or the yard. Tenancy and lease rules do not apply to it.

We keep possession and control of the unit and the yard at all times. That includes the rights to enter the unit and to move you to another unit that these terms describe. We are not a warehouse keeper: we do not take your goods into our custody. You keep the key and look after your goods.

If you are a consumer (an individual acting mainly outside your trade, business or profession) and you book online, by phone or anywhere other than at our office, you have the right to cancel without giving a reason. You can cancel within 14 days, starting the day after your agreement is made. This right comes from the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

To cancel, tell us clearly before the 14 days end: by email or letter (so that you have a record), by phone, or by using our model cancellation form. You do not have to use the form. Our contact details are on our contact page.

If you ask us to let you start using the unit within the 14 days and then cancel, you must pay for the storage you have had up to the moment you told us you were cancelling, worked out by the day. We refund everything else you have paid, including any deposit, without delay and within 14 days of you telling us, to the payment method you used.

Once you cancel, please remove your goods and leave the unit clean and empty within a reasonable time that we agree with you. We charge for extra days only if your goods stay in the unit after that time, at the rate of your licence fee worked out by the day.

If you book as a business, or you sign your agreement at our office, the 14-day right to cancel does not apply, but you can still end your agreement by giving notice (see “Ending the agreement”).

Your Schedule shows the licence fee and the billing period (monthly unless your Schedule says otherwise). The licence fee is payable in advance for each billing period. Prices shown to you include VAT at the rate that applies, and we show you every charge you must pay before you book.

We make an invoice available to you for each payment, in your online account, and we may also email it to you. It is your responsibility to make sure that payment reaches us on or before the due date, whether or not you have received an invoice.

You can pay by Bacs Direct Debit or by card, using the method set up on your account. If you pay by Direct Debit, we tell you the amount and date of your first collection before it is taken, and we tell you in advance if the amount or date changes, as the Direct Debit Guarantee requires. The Guarantee protects you: if an error is made in how a payment is taken, you are entitled to an immediate refund from your bank or building society, and you can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by contacting your bank. Cancelling a Direct Debit does not end your agreement or cancel what you owe us.

A payment counts as made only when it has cleared. If a payment fails or is reversed, including a Direct Debit that is later returned or claimed back, we may try to collect it again, and until it is paid we treat it as unpaid.

If your Schedule shows a deposit, it is refundable. We hold it, without interest, as security for what you owe us, such as unpaid licence fees and the cost of clearing the unit or putting right damage you caused. We return it within 28 days after you leave, less anything you still owe us, and we tell you what we have deducted and why. If your Schedule shows no deposit, we take none.

We may review the licence fee from time to time. We will give you written notice before a change takes effect, and the notice will be at least 14 days and at least as long as the notice you must give us to end the agreement. If you do not accept the change, you can end your agreement by giving us notice (see “Ending the agreement”), and the licence fee you were already paying applies until it ends.

The unit is for storing lawful goods that you own or are entitled to store. You confirm that you are the owner of the goods, or that you have the owner’s authority to enter into this agreement.

The size we give for a unit is approximate and only a guide; the unit is licensed as a whole, not by measured area. Unless we tell you otherwise, units are not heated or climate controlled, so protect any goods that are sensitive to damp, cold, heat or condensation, or do not store them.

You must not live, sleep or work in the unit, run a business from it, or use it as a business or postal address, without our written agreement. Keep the unit clean and your goods dry. Do not alter or damage the unit or the yard or fix anything to them, and do not let anyone else store goods in your unit or share it.

Our acceptable use and prohibited goods page sets out what you must not store and how everyone must behave at our yards. It forms part of your agreement.

We can accept deliveries for you if we agree it beforehand. We sign for a delivery as received and do not open or check it, and we may refuse any delivery that is unsafe, perishable, unlawful or too large for us to handle.

You must tell us promptly if you change your address, email address or telephone number.

You provide the padlock and hold the key. You are responsible for locking and unlocking the unit, for keeping it secure, and for anyone you allow into the yard. Tell us at once if you lose a key, or any code or card we give you, or think someone else has it. If we ask, you must use a lock that meets our reasonable security requirements.

You may access your unit during the access hours for your yard. We may change the access hours and the yard rules where reasonably necessary, and we will tell you.

Our yards are monitored by CCTV and we keep the recordings for a limited time; see our privacy notice. We take reasonable care to keep our yards secure, but we cannot guarantee that theft, damage or loss will never happen.

We may enter the unit, including by removing your lock or an overlock if necessary:

• in an emergency;
• to inspect, maintain or repair the unit or the yard;
• where the police, the fire service, a local authority or another authority requires it, or the law requires it;
• where we reasonably suspect that prohibited or dangerous goods are in the unit, or that you have broken your agreement;
• to move you to another unit; and
• to use our rights under “Late and unpaid payments” and “Our right to keep and sell your goods”.

Except in an emergency, or where we are suspending your access for safety, security or legal reasons, or using our rights under those two sections (which have their own notice rules), we will give you reasonable notice first.

We may suspend your access where the section “Late and unpaid payments” allows it, or where it is reasonably necessary for safety, security or legal compliance, or to protect the yard or other customers.

We may need to move you to a different unit, for example for maintenance, safety, or to make better use of the yard. If so, we will give you reasonable notice (or none, in an emergency or where safety or the law requires it) and offer you a unit of a similar size at the same yard. We will move your goods ourselves or give you reasonable time to move them, and we will not charge you for the move. Nothing else in your agreement changes except the unit number. If the new unit does not suit you, you can end your agreement and leave on the day of the move, and we will refund, within 28 days, any licence fee you have paid for the period after that day.

You must insure the goods you store. Either give us evidence of your own cover, or keep an adequate and valid policy in force at all times while you store with us. We do not provide insurance or a protection waiver; see our waiver terms.

Your goods are stored at your risk, except where loss or damage is caused by our negligence or by our breaking this agreement. We are not responsible for loss or damage caused by anything else, such as fire, flood, weather, damp or condensation, vermin, wear and tear, the natural deterioration of goods, or theft or damage by someone else, unless it was our fault. Tell us promptly about any loss or damage, and do not move affected goods until we have had a reasonable chance to inspect them.

We are responsible for losses you could reasonably have expected to result from our negligence or our breaking this agreement. If you are a business, we are not responsible for loss of profit, income, business or opportunity, or for indirect or consequential loss.

You are responsible for loss of or damage to our property or to other people’s goods to the extent that it is caused by your negligence or by your breaking your agreement (for example by storing prohibited goods, or goods that leak, give off fumes or carry pests), or by the negligence or breach of anyone you let into the yard. This does not apply to the extent that we caused or contributed to it. You must pay our reasonable costs of putting it right.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Your agreement starts on the start date in your Schedule and continues from one billing period to the next until it is ended. There is no minimum term.

Either of us may end the agreement by giving the other at least 14 days’ written notice; email counts as writing. Your Schedule shows your notice period. We refund any licence fee you have paid in advance for the period after the agreement ends, within 28 days after the later of the end date and the day you return the unit to us empty.

By the end date you must remove all your goods, leave the unit clean and empty with your lock removed, and have paid everything you owe up to that date. If goods are left behind we may charge for each extra day at the rate of your licence fee and, after writing to you, remove and dispose of them (see “Our right to keep and sell your goods”) and charge you the reasonable cost of doing so.

We may end the agreement straight away, or on shorter notice, if you break it in a serious way (for example by not paying after the steps in “Late and unpaid payments”, by storing prohibited goods, or by putting people or property at risk), or if the law or safety requires it. If we need to close a yard, we will give you reasonable notice of at least 14 days.

If you cannot pay on time, please tell us straight away so that we can help. Before taking any of the steps below, we will write to you by email or post (and sometimes by text message) to tell you what is overdue.

If a payment is more than 14 days overdue, we may charge a late payment fee of £10 for each overdue payment. The fee is a fixed sum that includes any VAT, and it is towards our reasonable costs of chasing the payment.

If a payment is more than 14 days overdue and we have written to you, we may suspend your access to the unit by fitting an overlock, and refuse to release your goods until you have paid what you owe. We will not do this for a sum you dispute in good faith until we have replied to you. Your licence fee keeps running while your access is suspended. We may also charge you the reasonable costs we actually incur in recovering what you owe, such as fitting and removing an overlock. Once what is overdue has been paid and the payment has cleared, we will remove the overlock within one working day. While an overlock is on, we will, on a reasonable request, let you in with our staff to collect medicines, identity documents or tools you need for work.

If an amount stays unpaid, we may begin the steps described in “Our right to keep and sell your goods”, which start with a written notice giving you at least 28 days.

While an amount you owe us is overdue, we may keep your goods in the unit and refuse to release them until you pay. You agree to this in your agreement and, so far as the law allows, we also have a right of retention over your goods. We will not rely on it for a sum you dispute in good faith until we have replied to you.

If an amount stays unpaid, we may sell or otherwise dispose of your goods to recover what you owe, but only after we have:

• sent you a written notice, by email and by post, to the last email address and postal address you gave us, saying what you owe, that we intend to sell or dispose of your goods, and the date after which we may do so; and
• given you at least 28 days after the later of the dates on which the email and the posted notice count as received (see “Notices”) to pay what you owe and collect your goods.

If the law requires us to obtain a court order, or to follow a different procedure, before we sell, we will do that first.

If we sell your goods, we will take reasonable steps to get a fair price (the best price reasonably obtainable), use the money to pay what you owe and our reasonable costs of storing, overlocking, giving notice and selling, and pay any balance to you. If we cannot find you, we will hold the balance for you for at least six years. If the sale does not cover what you owe, you remain responsible for the rest.

We may dispose of goods that have no real resale value, or that are unsafe or perishable, without selling them, and we may charge the reasonable cost of doing so. We will give you the same notice first, unless the goods are unsafe and cannot safely wait. If we suspect that goods are stolen or illegal, or are weapons or controlled drugs, we will not dispose of them ourselves: we will tell the police and follow their instructions.

Nothing in this section limits any right you have under the law.

If you die, we will deal with your goods through your executors or administrators once they show us their authority to act (in Scotland, confirmation; elsewhere in the UK, a grant of probate or letters of administration). If you become bankrupt (in Scotland, sequestrated), or you are a business that becomes insolvent, we will deal with your trustee, liquidator or administrator. We will not sell your goods until we have taken reasonable steps to find and speak to the people with authority over them. The licence fee keeps running until the agreement ends or the goods are removed.

We use your personal information as set out in our privacy notice, which also explains our CCTV and your rights.

Some units, such as containers on open yards, may be entered separately in the valuation roll, the list of properties that business rates are based on, which the local Assessor keeps. Where yours is, we tell the Assessor and the local council when you start and stop using it, so that their records are right and so that you can get any business-rates relief you may be entitled to. The council or the Assessor may then contact you directly. We share only what they need: your name, the unit reference, the yard’s address, the dates you start and stop, and the fact that you store goods under a licence. If a council’s billing team asks for it, we may also give them your correspondence address. We tell them nothing about whether any rates are payable by you; that is for them to decide.

If you are unhappy with anything about our service, please tell us so that we can put it right: contact us, or speak to the team at your yard. Please give your name, your unit and what has gone wrong. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to give you our full answer within 28 days. If it will take longer, we will tell you why and keep you updated.

If we cannot settle your complaint between us, our final reply will say whether we agree to use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider and, if so, which one. You can also get free advice from Citizens Advice or from Advice Direct Scotland (consumeradvice.scot). Nothing in this section affects your right to go to court.

You must keep your contact details up to date. We may send you notices by email or by post, to the address in your Schedule or the latest one you have given us. A notice sent by email counts as received on the day after it is sent, and a notice posted first class two working days after it is posted. We also send any notice of an intended sale or disposal of goods by post.

Notices to us must be in writing, sent to our registered office or by email to mail@storagezone.co.uk.

Your agreement is personal to you: you may not transfer it or let anyone else store goods in the unit. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another business (for example if we sell the yard), as long as your rights are not reduced.

If we do not enforce a right straight away, we have not given it up. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. Nobody except you and us has any right to enforce the agreement.

If an event outside our reasonable control, such as severe weather, fire, flood, a power or network failure, or an order of the authorities, stops or delays us doing something, we are not in breach for as long as it continues, and we will take reasonable steps to put things right. This does not affect your right to cancel or to end the agreement, or what we owe you for our own negligence.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

These terms and your agreement are governed by Scots law, and the Scottish courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute about them. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the part of the UK where you live, you may bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the UK where you live, and we will bring any proceedings against you only there.

We may change these terms, for example when the law changes or we change how we work. The date and version at the top show which terms you are reading. A change does not affect an agreement you already have, except where the agreement allows it (such as a change to the licence fee) or the law requires it. Agreements made before the date at the top stay on the terms that applied when they were made.