GUEST EDITORIAL
For anyone who doesn’t understand, or even think they do, the issues with handling personal property from repossessed vehicles and the many reasons why the repossession agencies deserve to be compensated for handling and storing them, please read below. This is a very well detailed written explanation by item, all of the reasons why handling personal property is one of the riskiest, time consuming and litigious duties performed in the repossession industry.
Thought I’d share….
I asked my warehouse manager to summarize dealing with personal property issues from cradle to grave and his response:
Good Morning, I was asked to compile a list of things we encounter inventorying the vehicles we come across daily and provide an idea of the hardships, difficulties, obstacles, and dangers associated with the task at hand. I hope this list illuminates on the unique challenges we come across, what we are currently doing to deal with them, and what ideally we would like to see to both make us more efficient, financially whole, and provide a safer work environment for the employees.
Safety
Our main concern every day is the safety of all our employees. Some might not think it, but inventorying a car poses as many dangers, if not more than the actual repossession and like all things we try to be as prepared as possible for any and all variables.
–Biohazard
One of the most prevalent safety and health concerns we come across is a vehicle posing a Biohazard Concern. Biohazards come in many forms. From the more benign Soiled pair of Clothes and dirty diapers to more severe instances where feces has been found throughout the vehicle, uncapped hypodermic needles, to even the most extreme of events, suicide.
Currently we utilize PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that consists of disposable gloves, masks, and safety glasses. But even with leather gloves a hidden uncapped needle can and will puncture, exposing our employees to potential Diseases/Viruses. Bodily fluids also pose risk, the Covid-19 epidemic is a perfect example of the extraordinary steps we have to take to safeguard from those dangers. Ideally, I would like to see Employees have access to Attire that fully protects them in the means of uniform. Everyone wears their personal clothes to work and the unknowns of what you could take home to loved ones is troubling.
In terms of the most severe where a Sight Inventory took place on a couple of vehicles where someone tragically took their lives. There is no true way to prepare someone to deal with the smell and scene of seeing that in person and then dealing with a person attempting to redeem that property.
-Insects/Bugs: Another Biohazard we see frequently is Bed bug/Cockroach/Venomous Spiders. The first two clearly pose risk to all other inventory we store at our facility as well as hitchhiking on our employee’s clothes home. Another reason providing them with Uniforms they store at the facility and remain there is needed. Special care and time has to be invested to keep these properties both away from all other inventory as well as containing the items in a way anything inside cannot “escape” and infest our workplace. In regards to the venomous insects there have been many instances where we had to utilize insecticide spray to rid the vehicle of these pests. Which costs money and time to do.
-Large Items: Daily we come across Trucks or Commercial vans that have several large items that require either several people to move, or a forklift given the sheer size or weight of the items. These include Toolboxes, Air Compressors, Welders, etc. Moving items these big always pose a level of risk to both the individuals moving the items and the actual items wellbeing. On top of this these items take large amounts of room and sometimes cannot even be stored in a normal property room. Now taking up valuable Warehouse space generally reserved for High Value Vehicles. Also, in the event of a Debtor picking up their belongings or vehicle we now have to load these large items in front of the Debtor, opening up liability and possible claims “Damage occurred” when nothing of the sort occurred. If the debtor does not redeem their property, we now are burdened with discarding these items and the costs associated.
Specialty Items
In many cars we come across items of high value, fragility, Illicit, or sentimental nature. Extra steps have to be taken with all these items. All requiring additional time, exposure, and space to house such things.
-High Value: Large amounts of money, jewelry, electronics, designer clothing/footwear etc. All these things found in vehicles have an entirely different process of inventorying and being stored given their worth. An entire separate Space has to be dedicated to house these items. As well as meticulous notation of what they are to protect us from accusations. Many times, these accusations surface with no merit consisting of either damage or missing items, but hours are spent reviewing Camera Footage, interviewing the employees who performed the inventory, and dealing with the debtor.
-Fragility: Similar to the High Value Items, fragile items require just as much attention if not more care. Glassware, pottery, etc. These items have to be separated from all other inventory, bubble wrapped and stored with other like items. Again, this takes time in meticulous notation of the item, where its being stored and if there is preexisting damage. Like the High Value items we run into constant complaints of missing/damage items even after we took additional steps to safeguard these items.
-Illicit: Both specialty and of safety concerns we run into many illicit items. From Drugs, Contraband, and Firearms. All of these items require notation and involvement of local Authorities. Something that as of late has been a struggle to get assistance with. Countless hours have been spent attempting to get help with picking up or properly discarding these items. They also pose a high risk when dealing with the debtor and informing them these items have been turned over to the Police. The safety aspect of coming into contact with poorly stored narcotics or a loaded firearm hastily stored could lead to tragedy if the employee is not vigilant and paying attention at all times.
-Sentimental: Perhaps the most difficult. Understanding certain items holding Sentimental value is always an assumption. Approaching with Common sense isn’t always enough. Still Storing Documents such as Birth Certificates, Ultrasounds, Pictures, obituary documents or Items such as Cremated Remains, rosaries/bibles all take additional time and space just like the above mentioned items. Every now and again we cannot predict what holds sentimental value to someone. A debtor seeing something they cherish stored with a bunch of other stuff creates volatile issues and complaints which consume resources and create potential safety issues.
Trash/Waste
Many vehicles we come across are filled with large amount of trash and waste. These vehicles are extremely time consuming from both a Safety Standpoint and inventory.
-Inventory: Dealing with a vehicle that has large amounts of trash poses issues as we must “wade” through all of it to find any storable items. This increases chances of an employee being injured from unseen dangers. Playing into the sentimental part of things “One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure” we spend a countless amount of time determining what should be stored and what shouldn’t. Which has led to many complaints with Debtors as something they consider should be stored which we concluded was trash. Which has forced us to meticulously list anything we chose not to store to defend that decision, again time consuming.
-Transport: With many of the cars, trucks more so then passenger cars if there is a substantial amount of trash or junk Auctions refuse to accept the vehicle until properly cleaned out. Burdening us with the task of spending time disposing of all the trash and then covering cost to dump it.
Storage/Disposal
As the amount of vehicles we are repossessing increases, the amount of items increase as well and the space we have shrinks. Currently holding items for 60 days provides challenges as storing something for 2 months takes valuable space as inventory continually comes in. Also, the longer items sit the chance of damage and loss increase exposing us to greater liability.
-Storage: On Average we see vehicles contain 2-3 60 Gallon Bags of Items with bundled items that cannot be bagged. Time is spent ensuring we maintain a smart system on how to store everything on our limited amount of space which is a constant battle of clearing shelves and maintain order and cleanliness. As mentioned above we are always dealing with items that cannot be stored in a normal matter forcing us to create shelving/storage solutions to deal with these unique scenarios. Some vehicles have so many items in them over 2 hours of time is spent cataloging and storing everything. Which either eventually needs to be placed back in the vehicle or disposed of, consuming more time. Given the vast amounts of items incoming to our facility we have had to expand a couple times to house all these items and meet the criteria set forth by Clients to satisfy Privacy/Security needs.
-Disposal: Everyday, we are tasked with removing items that have elapsed past the 60 day holding period to create more room for incoming property. Requiring us to go through all of these items a second time to properly dispose of information sensitive/private documents or items to protect the Debtor/Third Party. This takes as much if not more time to do. We also have to juggle the limited resources of space for trash and discarded items, at times paying for additional Trash Pickup so we do not have an overflowing Dumpster. Which equates to more money being spent on the over encompassing Inventory Process.
In Closing, everyday we face obstacles and invest extraordinary amounts of time while exposing ourselves to unknown dangers and unforeseen liabilities. Every vehicle and circumstance is different. But we approach every situation with the intent to provide the best service we can while ensuring our employees stay safe and the items are stored properly and securely. With the growing number of repossessions we are seeing, the amount of property increases. Requiring us to Hire more people and allocate additional resources to maintain an efficient and productive work environment.
Authored by:
Pat Rappa
Warehouse Manager,
Accurate Adjustments, Inc.,
Provided by:
Shane Freitas
President,
Accurate Adjustments, Inc.,
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