Florida Journalist Investigates Self-Storage Flood Complaint

Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal is trying his best to help out a central Florida woman who called the station regarding what she describes as a "storage unit nightmare."

According to tenant Chanel Williams, her storage unit at a CubeSmart located at 1865 Renzulli Road in New Smyrna Beach flooded during the hurricane season in 2022. She says she was not informed, and so she continued to pay each month unknowing that her belongings were damaged.

Earlier this week, Williams went to her unit and was greeted with an unpleasant odor upon opening the door. “You can smell it," she told Deal. "It’s musty and moldy from the water. So, basically, now I’m left with a storage unit full of trash."

Williams estimates that $45,000 dollars’ worth of furnishings have been damaged. She says some items had been wrapped in plastic by CubeSmart management, something else she was unaware of. "I was never alerted that they entered my unit," she stated.

Despite not being told about the damage, she says she has continued to receive payment notices, and has continued to pay them (She showed Action 9 the payments she made totaling more than $6,000).

“I spent a lot of money, and somehow, I get all the emails of when they charge my credit card every month. I get the mail of when they are increasing the rate every year,” she told Deal.

She claims the local representatives from the New Smyrna Beach CubeSmart office haven’t helped, simply referring her to a district manager who she claims hasn’t called back.

In a posted video, when Deal attempted to enter the CubeSmart office to ask about the incident, the employee closed the door on him and refused to speak about it.

Williams says that although she has paid for insurance, she understands flooding was not included and doesn't expect reimbursement for the damaged items. She does think, however, that CubeSmart should reimburse her for the past two years of storage costs. She says had the facility alerted her about the flooding, she could have decided if she wanted to continue to pay for storage and perhaps could have salvaged some of her belongings.

“I would like to see someone reach out to me, and, you know, let me know why they didn’t reach out to me,” Williams said.