If a family member who passed away recently stated in their will that they wanted you to have the items that they had been keeping on a self-storage property, you might be interested in the following tips.
Bring along proof that you are now the owner of the unit's contents
When you decide to pay a visit to the storage facility to look at what's inside the deceased's unit, you must bring with you some evidence that you now own the contents of that unit. The people who run self-storage facilities take the security of their customers' units very seriously and would not normally allow someone who was not the named renter of a unit to have access to it unless they could prove that they were legally allowed to do this.
As such, if you show up at the facility, expecting to be let in after explaining that your deceased relative wanted you to take the contents of their unit, the manager of this building might not be able to let you go into the unit and you may have to leave empty-handed. Some examples of the proof that you could bring with you to demonstrate that you are permitted to access the unit's contents include some photo I.D. and a copy of the deceased's will. This should ensure that you can freely enter the unit and take or leave whichever items you want to.
Don't be too quick to dispose of old-looking items
If you're not entirely sure what your relative left inside their unit and you plan to explore it and dispose of any rickety or old-looking items that you don't want to hold onto, it is important to be cautious when doing this. There are a couple of reasons why you should not be too quick to throw out these things.
Firstly, it is possible that some of these items could be antiques that might be worth some money — in fact, this might be one of the reasons your relative bequeathed the unit's contents to you. As such, before disposing of older-looking goods, you might want to take them out of the unit and have them inspected by an antique valuation expert.
Secondly, if there are items that are old but in good condition which your relative owned for many years of their life, these items might be viewed as family heirlooms by your other relatives. Given this, if you don't want to keep them for yourself, you may want to offer them to your other family members, as they might appreciate these items.
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