A former self-storage tenant has filed a wrongful-sale lawsuit against Ace Storage in Collinsville, Ill. Plaintiff Gary Tedford of Edwardsville, Ill., alleges the self-storage operator never sent him a late-payment notice after he was 10 days past due for rent and didn’t post public advertising announcing a lien sale of his belongings. The suit, filed against Ace Ventures-Collinsville LLC in Madison County Circuit Court, also claims Ace Storage distributed Tedford’s property between employees and has refused to return any items to him, according to the source.

The lawsuit alleges breach of contract and violation of the Self-Storage Facility Act, the Consumer Fraud Act and the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practice Act, the source reported. Tedford is seeking more than $50,000 in compensation, plus court costs. The plaintiff is represented by attorney Randall P. Steele of Steele Law Offices LLC in Glen Carbon, Ill.

Tedford began storing property at the Ace Storage facility, 120 Troy Road, on Aug. 23, 2014, with the understanding he would receive a late-payment notice once rent was 10 days past due, according to the complaint.

Ace Storage posts public-auction schedules on its website, including dates for when public sales will be held, when notices were sent, news-ad submission and when the ads ran. It lists 13 auction dates in Illinois between Jan. 1, 2015, and Jan. 1, 2016. “When an account is seriously past due and, despite our best efforts, a particular customer does not make the payments, [as] the rental agreement and our payment policy specifies, Ace Storage follows Missouri and Illinois statues to auction the contents of the lockers in order to recover the amount of rent past due,” according to the website.

Ace Storage operates four self-storage facilities in Illinois and two in Missouri.

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