Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Pennsylvania House passes Conklin bill to protect small business owners of self-storage facilities

Pennsylvania House passes Conklin bill to protect small business owners of self-storage facilities

Rep. Scott Conklin    June 3, 2025 | 4:32 PM

HARRISBURG, June 3 – An overwhelming bipartisan majority of the Pennsylvania House today passed legislation introduced by state Rep. Scott Conklin that would protect owners of small self-storage companies when customers fail to honor their rental agreements.

Conklin, who is majority chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said he introduced H.B. 1359 to remedy a problem that frequently confronts the owners of these small businesses.

“Self-storage companies are mostly small businesses, and their owners face a difficult problem when a customer defaults or fails to sign their rental agreement,” Conklin said. “With no timeframe in place to enforce the unsigned or unpaid agreement, the unit sits occupied and unrentable, costing the business owner money.

“My bill would provide timeframes in which these agreements become enforceable – even if they are unsigned – and would allow access to a unit and its contents to be restricted or denied if the renter is unresponsive. No small business owner should have to suffer because a customer fails to uphold their end of an agreement. My bill would help ease that burden, so these small businesses remain viable.”

Under Conklin’s bill, If the unit occupant fails to sign the rental agreement within 30 days, their rent payment or continued use of the unit would be deemed an acceptance of the rental agreement, which could then be enforced by the business owner. The occupant would have 14 days after delivery of the notice to remove all personal property.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 194-9, now heads to the state Senate for consideration.