Yes, as long as the owner has agreed. You can keep a friend’s furniture, a parent’s belongings or a customer’s stock in your unit, and the arrangement works just as it does for your own things, with you as the person named on the agreement.
How it works
When you sign up, you confirm that everything in the unit is either yours or something you have the owner’s permission to store. We don’t need a list of whose things are whose: you’re our customer, and the owner sorts things out with you.
The unit stays in your name, so you look after the account and decide who can get in. That makes it easy for the owner to reach their own things. With smart entry, you can share access from your phone with anyone you choose, for a set period or for as long as you like. At Chipping Norton, which uses padlocks, you share access by giving them the key and access code.
Before their things go in
A few simple steps help:
- Agree the basics. How long, who pays, and how the owner gets their things back if you’re not around.
- Check what’s going in. Some items can’t be stored, for everyone’s safety, including anything flammable, food, and things that are irreplaceable or of great sentimental value. Our list of items we can’t store has the full detail.
- Include their things in your cover. Everything in the unit needs contents cover, through our contents protection or your own policy. Add the owner’s things when you work out your replacement value, and if you use your own policy, check it covers goods that belong to someone else.
- Think about your alternate contact. Everyone gives us an alternate contact who lives at a different address, for emergencies when we can’t reach you. If the owner lives elsewhere, they may be a natural choice.
Common situations
A parent storing a student’s things. The unit is usually in the parent’s name, and your son or daughter can be given their own access.
A parent’s belongings after a move into care. The family member doing the practical work usually holds the agreement and shares access with anyone else who needs it.
A business holding customers’ goods. Keep a record of whose goods are in the unit, keep your declared value up to date as stock comes and goes, and check your insurance covers goods you hold for others.
One thing to mention to the owner
The agreement treats everything in the unit in the same way, whoever owns it. So if storage fees went unpaid and the debt still wasn’t settled after we’d written to you, their things would be treated the same as yours, which in the last resort can mean being sold to clear it. Keeping the account up to date, and telling us early if money’s tight, is the way to stay well clear of that.
If you’d rather the agreement were in the owner’s own name, see whether someone else can sign the storage agreement. When you’re ready, get a price online or call us on 0800 2545585.
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