New 2026 Laws Every Self Storage Operator Should Know

As the calendar flips to January 1, 2026, self storage operators across the U.S. will see a wave of legal changes continue to roll through the industry—led by California, with other states and federal regulators not far behind.

At Forge Building Company, we’re focused on designing and erecting better self storage facilities, but we also know that smart development goes hand-in-hand with smart compliance.

This overview will help owners, investors, and managers understand what’s coming on January 1, 2026, and how to start getting ready now.

Important note: This blog is for general information only and isn’t legal advice. Always confirm specifics with your attorney and your state self storage association.

Big picture: What’s changing on January 1, 2026?

As of early December 2025, the clearest, already-enacted self storage-specific laws scheduled to take effect January 1, 2026, are in California¹:

• SB 709 – Self-Service Storage Facilities: Rental Agreement Disclosures
• AB 498 – Self-Service Storage Facilities: Lien Notices: Email

Other states are actively debating similar legislation. For example, New York’s S3690 on lien-notice requirements remains pending in the Assembly, but many of those bills haven’t (yet) crossed the finish line or don’t have a fixed effective date².

At the same time, federal and cross-industry rules (like the Corporate Transparency Act and the FTC’s “Click to Cancel” rule) are reshaping how self storage businesses handle ownership reporting and auto-renewing contracts through 2025–2026³.

So, while California is the headline for January 1, 2026, the overall message for operators nationwide is clear:

More transparency.
More documentation.
More digital communication.
More consumer-protection focus.

We will break down the two big California laws first (since other states may soon follow), then zoom out to national trends you should plan for in 2026.

California SB 709: New rental agreement disclosure rules

Effective date: Applies to rental agreements initially entered into on or after January 1, 2026⁴.

What SB 709 does

SB 709 amends California’s Self-Service Storage Facility Act to require much clearer pricing and fee disclosures in new self storage rental agreements. For any new rental signed on or after January 1, 2026, the agreement must clearly spell out:

1. Whether the rental rate is discounted or promotional.
2. Whether the rental fee is subject to change.
3. The maximum rental fee the owner could charge during the first 12 months following the date of the rental agreement.

Legal commentators are already warning that failure to make these disclosures properly could expose operators to consumer litigation in California.

What does this mean for self storage operators?

If you own or manage facilities in California, you’ll need to:

• Update lease templates so that the required disclosures are:
  • Easy to find (not buried in fine print)
  • Written in plain, understandable language
• Coordinate your promotions and revenue-management tools so that:
  • Discounted “move-in specials” are clearly labeled as such
  • Any future rent increases are consistent with the “maximum rent in first 12 months” you disclose
• Train your teams so that managers can confidently explain:
  • How promo pricing steps up over time
  • When and how rate changes can occur in that first year

Even if your facilities aren’t in California, SB 709 is a preview of where the industry is heading: more transparency and documentation around pricing from day one.

California AB 498: Stronger rules for email lien notices

Effective date: AB 498 was chaptered on October 6, 2025, and,⁵ like most non-urgency California statutes, is part of the “New California Laws 2026” package, taking effect January 1, 2026.

What AB 498 does

California already allowed lien notices to be sent by email when certain conditions were met. AB 498 clarifies and tightens what counts as “actual delivery and receipt” of lien notices.

Under the amended statute, owners can demonstrate delivery by showing that the document was sent to the occupant’s email address and there is evidence that the occupant:

• Downloaded
• Printed
• Viewed
• Opened or
• Otherwise acknowledged receipt of the email⁶.

The law also preserves the requirement that the rental agreement authorizes email notices and that the occupant provides a written signature consenting to email delivery.

If you can’t show that kind of electronic “paper trail,” you’re required to fall back to traditional mailed notices.

What does this mean operationally?

For California operators, AB 498 is both a risk and an opportunity:

• Risk: If you’re relying on email for lien notices but don’t have solid documentation that the tenant opened or viewed the message, you could find your lien sale challenged.
• Opportunity: With the right software (tenant portals, tracking, automation), you can:
  • Reduce certified-mail costs
  • Speed up collections’ timelines
  • Maintain a stronger audit trail

Industry analysts have highlighted how manual lien management can quietly cost operators six figures a year in labor and compliance overhead; 2026 is being framed as the year when automated, well-documented delinquency workflows shift from “nice to have” to essential⁷.

Other 2026-Relevant Trends

Even if your facilities are nowhere near the West Coast, you shouldn’t ignore these developments. Similar ideas are appearing in legislation and legal commentary across the country. Here are a few examples.

1. Expanded lien-notice and auction rules

States including Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Virginia, Utah, and Washington D.C. have recently modernized their self storage statutes to:

• Allow email or other electronic notices
• Loosen or eliminate reliance on newspaper legal ads
• Streamline online lien auctions⁸

Once a framework proves workable in one state (like California’s updated email standards), it often becomes a template for others.

2. New York’s proposed lien-notice expansion

New York Senate Bill S3690 would add additional notice requirements before enforcing liens on self storage goods. This is aimed at improving communication with tenants whose property is at risk of auction⁹.

As of December 2025, it’s not yet law, but it’s a good example of the kind of consumer-protection proposals on the horizon.

3. Corporate Transparency Act & “Click to Cancel” rule

While not self storage-only, two national rules are reshaping self storage operations:

• Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) – requires most small entities to report beneficial ownership information; this impacts many storage ownership structures and LLCs.
• FTC “Click to Cancel” Rule – targets “negative option” arrangements (auto-renewing contracts) and may affect how you structure and cancel recurring monthly self storage rentals or protection plans.

4. Emergency-period rent increase caps

In California, AB 380 limits self storage rent increases to no more than 10% for 180 days following an emergency declaration, tightening older price-gouging rules that previously applied for 30 days unless extended¹⁰.

Again, that’s one state—but it illustrates how lawmakers are thinking about self storage pricing during disasters and crises.

In addition, several states have also been modifying self storage statutes, affecting things like online advertising and vehicle towing. These updates address:

• Online vs. newspaper advertising for lien sales.
• Notice delivery to tenants.
• Towing of vehicles stored in default instead of auctioning them.
• Limiting the value of stored property to limit operator liability.

These rules matter for 2026 budgets, systems, and training—even if technically, some of them came into play in 2025.

How Self Storage Owners Can Prepare for 2026

Regardless of what part of the country your properties are in, here’s a practical checklist to carry into the new year:

1. Get every lease template reviewed

• Work with your attorney and your state self storage association to:
  • Update your California leases for SB 709 and AB 498 if applicable.
  • Tighten pricing and lien-notice language in other states with an eye toward clarity and documentation, even if laws haven’t caught up yet.
• Make sure promo pricing, rent-increase rights, and maximum rents are clearly described in a way that matches how your software bills.

2. Upgrade your digital notice & recordkeeping

• Implement systems that:
  • Capture delivery and open/interaction logs for email notices
  • Retain time-stamped records of lien notices and tenant communications
  • Integrate with property-management software and auction platforms
• Consider automation tools (for collections, reminders, lien timelines) to reduce manual compliance risk and labor.

3. Align pricing strategy with transparency and emergency rules

• Map out how your:
  • Move-in specials
  • Annual rent increases
  • Revenue-management strategies interact with:
    • New disclosure requirements (like SB 709)
    • Emergency-period caps (such as AB 380 in California)
• Train onsite teams so they’re never surprised by how a rate changes mid-lease and can explain it simply to customers.

4. Coordinate legal and design early in new projects

This is where Forge’s years of experience and expertise come into play.

If you’re planning new facilities or expansions for 2026 and beyond, talk to the Forge team about:

• Office layout and tech spaces to support digital notice workflows, secure document storage, and automated systems.
• Signage and wayfinding that reinforce your written disclosures and policies.
• Access control and cameras that can help verify occupancy status and support your lien and auction procedures.

When legal, operations, and design teams are aligned at the planning and construction phases, you avoid expensive retrofits later.

5. Stay plugged into your state association & SSA

The Self Storage Association (SSA) and state associations are actively pushing and responding to legislative changes on lien laws, electronic notices, unsigned agreements, and non-monetary defaults¹¹.

• Join or renew membership
• Attend at least one legal/legislative update webinar
• Assign someone on your team to be the “compliance point-person.”

Looking ahead: Building for the next decade of compliance

If 2010–2020 was about getting self storage online (websites, customer portals, digital signatures), the mid-2020s are about tightening the legal bolts behind those tools:

• Clearer pricing disclosures
• More robust digital notice rules
• Stronger documentation expectations
• Expanded consumer-protection frameworks

For owners and developers, the winners in this new landscape will be the operators who design compliance into their facilities and workflows, not bolt it on later.

At Forge Building Company, we’re here to help you plan and build facilities that are ready for what’s coming next—from multi-story climate-controlled projects to RV & boat storage, flex space, and beyond. If you’re thinking about a new facility or expansion and want to future-proof your project for the evolving legal landscape, let’s talk.

References

1. LegiScan. (2025, October 6). Retrieved from LegiScan: https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB498/id/3111925

2. LegiScan. (2025, June 10). Retrieved from Legiscan: https://legiscan.com/NY/bill/S03690/2025

3. Zucker, S. (2025, February 9). Radius+. Retrieved from radiusplus.com: https://www.radiusplus.com/post/new-laws-impacting-self-storage-in-2025/

4. Holland & Knight. (2025, November 13). Retrieved from hklaw.com: https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2025/11/5-new-california-consumer-protection-laws-what-businesses-need-to-know

5. LegiScan. (2025, October 6). Retrieved from LegiScan: https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB498/id/3178762

6. Ailean. (2025). Retrieved from ai-lean.com: https://ai-lean.com/resources/lien-management-cost

7. Modern Storage Media. (2024, July 2). Retrieved from modernstoragemedia.com: https://www.modernstoragemedia.com/news/various-states-receive-or-set-to-receive-self-storage-law-updates

8. LegiScan. (2025, June 10). Retrieved from legiscan.com: https://legiscan.com/NY/bill/S03690/2025Ailean. (2025). Retrieved from ai-lean.com: https://ai-lean.com/resources/lien-management-cost

9. California Self Storage Association. (2025, June 19). Retrieved from californiaselfstorage.org: https://www.californiaselfstorage.org/news/california-self-storage-faces-multiple-challenges-from-2025-legislative-bills-

10. Bryant, D. (2025, July 1). Self Storage Association. Retrieved from selfstorage.org: https://www.selfstorage.org/Blog/ArticleID/388/SSA-Announces-2025-Legislative-Agenda