Questions people ask
Where can you store valuables while in prison?
The short answer
Valuables left during a sentence usually go to a relative’s home, a self-storage unit, a bank safe deposit box or a private vault. The deciding factors are who can get in while the owner is away, how far ahead rent is paid, and whether a signed inventory exists.
The longer answer
There are four usual places: a relative’s home, a self-storage unit, a bank safe deposit box and a private vault. Each one works for a short absence. Over a long sentence, the weak point of each starts to show.
A relative’s home costs nothing. It also depends on that relative staying in the same house, staying well and staying on good terms, for years. Rings go into a drawer. The drawer moves twice. Later, nobody can say what was handed over. A storage unit suits furniture and boxes of clothes, but it is a poor fit for a watch or a car title, and an unpaid unit is dealt with under the storage contract.
A bank box is sturdier. Each bank sets its own rules on accounts and rent, and the bank’s agreement decides who may enter. Bank box contents are not FDIC insured. When the rent stops, Florida handles a bank box under its unclaimed property rules, which can end with the contents sold by the state.
A private vault is what we run. Boxes range from $795 to $12,500 a year in eight sizes, and a term of 5 years or more takes 25% off each year’s rent. Whether a multi-year term is paid in full at signing is TODO_FACT: are multi-year terms paid in full up front?. The rental agreement names who may enter, and every visit is identified and logged.
Questions to put to any place that will hold things for years
Ask who can get in while you are inside, and what that person has to show. The answer should be in writing. It should name a person, and a household does not count.
Ask what happens when rent is missed: what notice goes out, to which address, and at what point contents are removed. Ours is TODO_FACT: what happens when rent lapses: notices, grace period, drilling, contents and will be set out on if rent lapses. A place that cannot answer that question plainly is a risk over a five-year term.
Ask whether there is a list of what went in. A signed inventory, with a copy in the renter’s hands, turns a later dispute into a matter of reading a page. Then ask how things come back out on release, or to someone collecting on your behalf. With us that is release and pickup, where the details are TODO_FACT: who can collect contents on release; how third-party pickup is arranged.