BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 279|
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CONSENT
Bill No: SB 279
Author: Emmerson (R)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 4-0, 3/22/11
AYES: Evans, Harman, Corbett, Leno
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee
SUBJECT : Business: self-service storage facilities
SOURCE : California Newspaper Publishers Association
DIGEST : This bill requires that lien sales, relative to
property in a self-storage facility, be advertised in a
newspaper of general circulation in the judicial district
where the sale is to be held.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, the California Self-Service
Storage Facility Act, specifies remedies and procedures for
self-service storage facility owners when occupants are
delinquent in paying rent or other charges. (Business and
Professions Code (BPC) Section 21700 et seq.)
Existing law provides that if an owner sends an occupant a
preliminary lien notice, the owner may, upon the effective
date of the lien, deny the occupant access to the space,
enter the space, and remove property for safe keeping.
(BPC Section 21705)
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Existing law requires owners to send occupants a notice of
lien sale that states the property will be sold to satisfy
the lien after a specified date that is not less than 14
days from the date of mailing unless (1) the amount of the
lien is paid; or (2) the occupant returns a declaration in
opposition to lien sale. (BPC Section 21705(c))
Existing law requires a lien sale to be advertised in a
newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the
sale is to be held, or, if there is no newspaper of general
circulation in the county, posted in not less than six
conspicuous places in the neighborhood of the proposed
sale. (BPC Section 21707)
This bill replaces two references to "county" with
"judicial district," thus, requiring any advertisement of a
lien sale to be in a newspaper of general circulation in
the judicial district where the sale is to be held, as
specified.
Background
Existing law, the California Self-Service Storage Facility
Act, governs self-service storage facilities and specifies
certain procedures to be followed when their occupants are
delinquent in their payments. When occupants are
delinquent, the owner must first send a preliminary lien
notice that informs them that if they do not pay the amount
due that their right to use the space will terminate, they
will be denied access, and an owner's lien will be imposed
on all stored property. If the occupant fails to pay the
amount, the owner may then send a notice of lien sale,
which states that the property will be sold to satisfy the
lien on or after a specified date (not less than 14 days
after mailing) unless (1) the amount of the lien is paid;
or (2) the occupant executes and returns a declaration in
opposition to the lien sale.
To provide public notice of an upcoming lien sale, existing
law requires the owner to advertise the sale for two weeks
in a newspaper of general circulation that is published in
the county where the sale is to be held. If there is no
paper of general circulation, the advertisement must be
posted in not less than six conspicuous places, as
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specified.
This bill changes the above publication requirement to,
instead, require the advertisement to be in a newspaper of
general circulation published in the judicial district (as
opposed to county) where the sale is to be held. That
change is consistent with the publication requirement that
existed prior to January 1, 2011: AB 655 (Emmerson),
Chapter 439, Statutes of 2010, replaced then-existing law's
reference to "judicial district" with "county." This bill
reverses that change.
Proposed change corrects an error in floor amendments to AB
655 (Emmerson) . As originally introduced, AB 655 sought to
substitute the requirement to publish notice of lien sales
with an obligation to advertise the sale in a commercially
reasonable manner. The substitution of that requirement
was opposed by the California Newspaper Publishers
Association (CNPA) who asserted that publication in a
newspaper is the best way to inform the entire community of
an important public event, the lien sale. Although the
bill was amended to reinsert the publication requirement,
clarifying amendments taken on the Senate Floor erroneously
replaced "judicial district" with "county." This bill
corrects that error and restores the references to judicial
districts for purposes of publication.
CNPA, sponsor of this bill, asserts that the rationale for
requiring lien sales notices to be published within the
judicial district, instead of county, is clear: "notices
are only effective if they reach the intended audience,
which in this case are the people who live in the community
where the sale is to take place and where the personal
property is located. To be effective, public notices
publicizing an event must be published in newspapers that
are adjudicated and circulated in communities that are
affected by the event. Allowing advertisers to publish
notices in any newspaper in the county would produce absurd
results."
Change consistent with prior legislation to preserve
judicial districts for purposes of publication . CNPA
additionally notes that "�w]hen the �L]egislature
consolidated the courts in the early 1990s, it kept the
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judicial districts in place as they existed before
consolidation for the sole purpose of maintaining the
system of providing public notice in a local newspaper of
general circulation." As part of that restructuring, the
Legislature provided that where judicial districts have
been consolidated in a county, or municipal and superior
courts have been unified within a county, the "territory
embraced within the respective prior component judicial
districts shall be separate judicial districts for the
purpose of publication within a judicial district."
(Government Code Section 71042.5) The net effect of that
section was to preserve the smaller historical judicial
districts so that the required publications could arguably
target the community in which the published event is taking
place.
As an example of how the shift to "county" could create
potential for mischief, the CNPA asserts that under
existing law, "a storage facility in Chino could advertise
lien sales in Barstow, a storage facility in the city of
San Bernardino, in Needles. In Los Angeles County, a
storage facility in Santa Monica could notice lien sales in
a newspaper in Claremont; a facility in Santa Clarity could
advertise in Long Beach."
By changing the publication requirement back to "judicial
district," this bill appears consistent with the prior
legislative intent to preserve historical judicial
districts and would arguably address the above issues
raised by CNPA regarding publication outside the community
at issue.
Prior legislation . AB 655 (Emmerson), Chapter 439,
Statutes of 2010, passed the Senate on August 20, 2010
(31-0). See Background above.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 3/23/11)
California Newspaper Publishers Association (source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "SB 279
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is �a] clean-up measure to AB 655, which updated the
California Self-Service Storage Facility Act. This bill
would correct a provision that allows lien sales of
property at self-storage facilities to be advertised in any
newspaper of general circulation in the county where the
lien sale is held. SB 279 will return the law to its
previous state and require that these lien sales be
advertised in a newspaper of general circulation in the
judicial district where the sale is held."
RJG:mw 3/23/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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