Stored items ruined by ice & water build-up says Calgary couple

CALGARY – A Calgary man is warning others who are keeping belongings inside a private storage locker to check it.

Weather changes over the past few months has created snow and ice problems at some self storage facilities in Calgary.

Mike Beliveau and his wife moved back to Calgary in November and have since been living with their daughter, storing their belongings with UHaul.

Two weeks ago, Mike noticed ice build-up around the door of his storage locker and says when he asked about it, he was told it would be fixed.

“They dug two little trenches to let the water out and we closed the door and left,” says Mike.

“We came back a month later and this is what we opened and found in our storage unit.”

Most of Mike’s furniture, including his mattresses are stuck in ice and water. He says he’s afraid more furniture will be ruined as the ice melts.

“When all this melts now with the warm weather coming on Thursday, all the water is going to run to the back.”

Mike and his wife do not have insurance on anything inside the locker and says he can’t remember if he was offered any extra coverage by UHaul. He feels he shouldn’t be held responsible because the issue was not his fault and the UHaul storage manager said the ice problem would be fixed.

“If they said they have insurance I would have taken it but nothing was mentioned so I don’t even know if our contract even has anything pertaining to insurance.”

The U-Haul Storage manager refused to talk with Global News and requested our cameras leave the property immediately when Mike showed us his locker.

However, he did imply Mike will be given some compensation.

Three other large self-storage companies Global News spoke with say customers are responsible for their own insurance, comparing renting a storage locker to renting an apartment – the tenant is responsible for insuring their own belongings.

However, most storage companies do offer third party coverage but the insurance packages vary.

At Sentinel, it costs four dollars for every $1,000 coverage up to $100,000. At Public Storage, you can purchase extra coverage up to $5,000.

Storage operators also remind renters to check their lockers regularly for any problems.

Some storage lockers offer pallets to store items off the floor but Beliveau says he wasn’t given that option.