An Unfortunate H Street Storage Story

A reader writes in with a tragic tale of property damage and indifference at H Street Storage. You'll really want to check out the photos:

My husband and I have lived on the Hill – in the H Street neighborhood – for about five years.  We enjoy all of the new restaurants, bars, and businesses popping up along H Street daily, and we take tremendous pride in our community. We’d be the first to applaud the hard work, great service, and entrepreneurial spirit of local businesses.  And we appreciate what your blog does to bring well-deserved positive attention to these businesses and their owners.

In this case, however, I am writing to put the spotlight on a not-so-great business and its practices: the H-Street Self Storage located on H between 6th and 7th Street NE.  We've sent this tip to a few other local bloggers -- including DCist and the Hill is Home but I believe this may be a story Frozen Tropics would be interested to cover as well.

My husband and I have been customers at H Street Storage since June 2008, renting a small unit to store the keepsakes and belongings that will not fit in our little row house.  As far as we know, H Street Storage is not an independent business, but part of a larger citywide chain of storage facilities called Mid-Atlantic Partners/Self Storage, Inc.

Yesterday afternoon, by happenstance, my husband went over to the unit to retrieve some items and discovered that major flooding had occurred throughout the whole building.  Our unit was under about a half-inch of water, and all items up against the walls where water trickled down were completely ruined including wood furniture, a new mattress, artwork and priceless family keepsakes.  Several units around us were clearly sitting in water as well.

When my husband asked the office what happened, they claimed that the building was undergoing roof work and the work was left unfinished when heavy rainstorms hit early last week.  The roof was fully exposed and water poured in, saturating the 5th, 4th, and 3rd floors – affecting hundreds of units building-wide.  Even some units on the lower floors seem to be affected as well.

As you might imagine, we were upset by the circumstances. But we were absolutely maddened by the response.  H Street Storage refused to compensate or work with us to find a fair solution, financial or otherwise. A back-and-forth conversation ensued, partly filed with rescinded offers.

First, yesterday afternoon, my husband was instructed by the front office to call “just call corporate” and plead his case.  He called that number, which is 301-762-1030, but we never reached a live voice.

Then today, the H Street Storage office refused to refund any portion of our monthly rent, despite our argument that we were now paying for a unit that has been rendered useless.  

The clerk next suggested we could move into a larger unit at no extra cost. But, they quickly withdrew that offer and suggested another unit of the same size on another floor.  When we went to visit it, it too had sitting water in it.  It was at that point we decided not to negotiate further, but to pack up the salvageable belongings and move our business to another storage facility.

Perhaps even more upsetting than their response today was their lack of response last week.  As the office clerk admitted (on tape, we recorded it) the rain accident occurred early last week.  But we never received a call anytime in the last five days to let us know.  When we asked the office if other affected customers were called, the response was “not yet” but “eventually” they would be in touch. Then we were jokingly teased for not visiting and keeping tabs on our unit often enough because this “kind of flooding happens all the time.”

I am certain that our neighbors who patronize H Street Storage have not been notified – and we want to do our part to alert them that their belongings may be damaged.

Photos of our soaked unit and damaged property can be found at this linked album: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsnhsr/HStreetStorageUnitI159Damage52310?feat=email#.   We also have recordings of our conversation with the office clerk, should you wish to obtain them.

Finally, aside from our experience – which seems trivial in comparison –there is another angle to this story that is considerably more tragic.  As we were moving out, we encountered two customers – one just moving in – that told us they were homeless or recently homeless.  Each mentioned to us that H Street Storage was the sole place they could keep their possessions.  It would be quite the coincidence to encounter the only two homeless H Street storage patrons, and we assume there must be many others like them using the facility. Without renters insurance – which they presumably do not have nor can afford – we imagine some of these poorest customers lost everything and will have no recourse.