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Committee passes bill letting self‑storage owners advertise auctions online instead of two-week newspaper notices
Summary
House Bill 131 would modernize advertising requirements for delinquent self‑storage auctions by allowing "commercially reasonable" online advertising in place of the current two-week newspaper-ad requirement; the committee passed the bill after industry testimony.
Representative Reeves introduced House Bill 131 to update Georgia's statute governing advertising and sale of goods from delinquent self-storage units, saying the law predates the Internet and still requires two weeks of newspaper ads. "The statute before you was drafted years ago ... before the Internet was invented," Reeves said, and the bill would permit commercially reasonable advertising, including online methods that generate bidders.
Industry witnesses told the committee that online listings now generate most bidders and that newspaper publication often fails to reach the market or causes delays and lost income for small operators. Joe Doherty of the Self Storage Association said, "Storage Wars is not reality TV," and cited industry data that "nearly 60% of storage auctions sold for under $100." Anne Ballard of Universal Storage Group and other operators described frequent, repeated efforts to notify tenants (texts, emails, phone calls, certified letters) and said lost revenue from occupied delinquent units can be a material drag on a small operator's cash flow and property value.
Operators described practical problems with county legal organs that delay publication or fail to provide reliable proof of publication; several operators said that forces them to push sale dates out multiple times and lengthens the period a unit remains unrentable. The bill keeps the statute's required actual notice to the debtor, alternate contacts and lienholders while allowing owners to use online or other commercially reasonable advertising methods; if a sale fails to generate at least three bidders, the statute requires a later sale date.
Committee members asked what would qualify as "commercially reasonable" advertising; the sponsor and witnesses described industry websites and social-media approaches as typical examples and said the measure follows changes adopted in more than 30 other states. After testimony and questions the committee approved the bill by voice vote.
Votes at a glance: House Bill 131 — passed by voice vote; no recorded roll-call tally.
