HB 559- Relating to Self-Storage Facilities
On Thursday, February 4th, HB 559, relating to Self-storage Facilities, by Rep. Mike LaRosa (R-St. Cloud) passed through the House Regulatory Affairs Committee by a vote of 15 yeas to 3 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, spoke in opposition to this bill.

HB 559 substantially revises the process that the owner of a self-storage facility may advertise and sell the personal property of a delinquent tenant. Under the bill, owners are no longer required to advertise a property sale via a local newspaper; such advertisements may now be posted in any “commercially reasonable manner.” Rather than rely on the courts to determine precisely what “commercially reasonable” means, the bill defines the term itself. If at least three bidders—all of whom are unrelated to the seller—attend the sale or register to bid online at the sale, the advertisement is commercially reasonable.

The bill will also allow for a “one stop shop” website where all public notices throughout the state will be posted and is set to be ran by the Department of Financial Services.

During public testimony on this bill, AIF as well as many others, pointed out that the introduction of this system would be futile seeing as there is already a website in place for public notices to be posted and is funded by private entities, eliminating the need for Government involvement.

This bill will now go to the House floor for consideration.

AIF opposes legislation that intends to derail Florida’s broad public notice system as defined by Chapter 50, Florida Statutes.