Self storage lien laws by state: 2026 data table

What the 51 verified jurisdictions require

These counts cover all 51 jurisdictions, each checked against the statute text.

• Email for the lien notice: 21 accept an address on file, 18 also need the tenant to agree, 5 allow email only alongside mail, 5 do not allow it and 1 is marked check statute. The guide to emailing a lien notice explains each group.
• Advertising: 18 need a newspaper ad, 2 allow one website ad next to the newspaper, 8 let an online auction website replace it, 14 accept any commercially reasonable manner and 9 set no ad medium. See the storage auction advertising requirements for the wording.
• Online auctions: 37 name an online sale, 7 only require a commercially reasonable sale, 2 limit it to a sale held at the facility and 5 are silent. The online storage auction laws guide has the notes for every row.
• Timeline: how long you wait differs in every state. The guide on how long before a storage unit is auctioned ranks the earliest sale days.

Stitch runs these steps for you: see lien and auction management and Stitch pricing. Each state's full page, with its statute notes, is linked from the State column and from the state pages.

What each column means

• Notice methods: the delivery methods the statute names for the lien notice, in our normalised wording.
• Notice before sale: the minimum days between the lien notice and the sale.
• Earliest sale: the earliest sale day the lien timeline planner shows, counted from the rent due date. "Notice date plus N days" means the statute sets no day count from the due date.
• Email for lien notice: Yes means an address on file is enough. Yes, if the tenant agreed means a consent or rental agreement clause comes first. Only alongside mail means email never replaces the mailed notice.
• Advertising rule: where the sale must be advertised. No ad medium set by statute means the text sets no newspaper or website requirement.
• Online auction: Allowed means the statute names an online or website sale. Statute silent; sale must be commercially reasonable means the text names no method and only requires a commercially reasonable sale. Silence is not permission, so check with your attorney.
• Statute read on: the date Scott Wilder read the statute text for that row.

How we built this

The sources are the state statutes themselves. Scott Wilder read the text of each state's self storage lien law, or the general lien statute where a state has no storage act, and entered what it says into one data file. This page and the CSV are generated from that file, so there are no hand-copied numbers.

Statutes were read between 2026-10-18 and 2026-10-25, and the date for each row is in the table. On 2026-10-25 we re-read Nevada's NRS 108.477 and Michigan's MCL 570.525 on the official sites and corrected how the online auction column describes them: neither statute mentions an online sale, and both only require a commercially reasonable sale.

Where an official site would not load, we read an enacted act or an unofficial copy, and the Statute column says so (2 rows, California and Colorado). States change these laws often, so check the current section before you rely on a row. All 51 jurisdictions are verified.

How to cite this dataset

The table and the CSV are licensed under CC BY 4.0. You may copy, share and adapt them if you credit Stitch Storage and link back to this page. Suggested citation:

Stitch Storage, Self Storage Lien Laws by State dataset, verified 2026-10-25, https://stitchstorage.com/self-storage-lien-laws/data

The CSV is at https://stitchstorage.com/self-storage-lien-laws/data.csv. It has one row per jurisdiction and the same columns as the table, plus the full advertising wording and the link to the statute text.

This dataset is general information, not legal advice. Review every notice and sale with your attorney. Related guides: the pre-lien and lien timeline explained.