Hiring a Mover, Filing a Loss Claim, and Stopping a Storage Sale: A Practical Checklist

Consumer Protection > Moving Companies and Self-Storage | Published 4 July 2025 - Updated 14 November 2025 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

Stage 3 takes ninety seconds and decides thousands of dollars. Stage 10 has a deadline measured in days.

Stage 1 — Vet the Company Before Signing Anything

☐ Get the USDOT number and the MC number. A company that will not provide them over the phone has answered every other question.

☐ Confirm active registration under 49 U.S.C. § 13901.

☐ Confirm insurance and bonding on file under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 and 49 C.F.R. part 387.

☐ Determine: carrier or broker? Brokers arrange; they do not move. They are regulated at 49 C.F.R. part 371 and must disclose their status and registration number. Ask directly: "Are you the carrier that will load my goods, or a broker?"

☐ If a broker, get the carrier's identity in writing before the deposit.

☐ Review complaint history for both entities.

☐ Confirm the route. Interstate → federal law, 49 U.S.C. § 13501 and 49 C.F.R. part 375. Intrastate → state law and, usually, a stronger consumer position because state deceptive practices statutes are not preempted.

☐ Demand the required documents before signing: the written estimate, the Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move booklet, the Ready to Move brochure, and the arbitration program disclosure required by 49 U.S.C. § 14708. Missing documents are a violation and a warning.

☐ Be suspicious of: a large deposit demanded up front; a quote given without any survey; a company that will not put the estimate in writing; a name that differs from the DOT registration; and a price far below every other bid.

Stage 2 — Lock the Estimate

☐ Insist on a survey — physical or virtual. Waiving it in writing is a real waiver, so do not.

☐ Walk every room, closet, garage, attic, basement, and shed with the surveyor. Undisclosed items are the source of post-loading revisions.

☐ Ask about a shuttle — will the tractor-trailer reach both addresses? Get the answer in writing. The shuttle is the single most common surprise charge.

☐ Ask about long carry, stair carry, and elevator charges and get each addressed on the estimate.

☐ Request a binding not-to-exceed estimate by name. You pay the lesser of the estimate or the actual charges.

☐ If non-binding, know the 110 percent rule: the carrier cannot require more than 110 percent of the estimate at delivery; the balance is billed over thirty days.

☐ Get the estimate in writing, dated and signed, with the shipment and services described.

☐ Understand the document hierarchy: the bill of lading is the contract and generally controls over the estimate. Read it before signing.

☐ Never sign a blank, partially completed, or unread document.

☐ Keep your own copy of everything, immediately, photographed on your phone at the moment of signing.

Stage 3 — Choose the Valuation (Ninety Seconds, Thousands of Dollars)

☐ Understand the two options under 49 U.S.C. § 14706:

	Released Value	Full Value Protection
Cost	free	added charge
Pays	$0.60 per pound per article	repair, replace, or cash at replacement value
A 90-lb armoire is worth	$54	its actual replacement cost
A 6-lb laptop is worth	$3.60	its actual replacement cost

☐ Choose full value protection in writing. Do not let anyone initial the released value box "because it's standard."

☐ Complete the high-value inventory listing every article of extraordinary value — generally anything over $100 per pound. Jewelry, art, collections, electronics, instruments, antiques.

⚠ An unlisted item of extraordinary value reverts to released value even under full value protection. This is where the $14,000 clock becomes a $63 claim.

☐ Ask whether a deductible applies and what it costs to remove.

☐ Check your homeowner's or renter's policy for coverage of goods in transit and in storage, and confirm limits in writing.

☐ Understand that valuation is not insurance — it is a contractual liability level. Separate transit insurance behaves differently.

Stage 4 — Loading Day

☐ Photograph every room before the crew arrives, and photograph every high-value item individually with a dated reference in frame.

☐ Video-walk the house narrating condition. Five minutes; decisive evidence later.

☐ Read the descriptive inventory as the crew writes it. Do not sign it at the end without reading.

☐ Challenge exception codes you disagree with, on the sheet, in writing, before signing. Learn four: ☐ PBO — packed by owner (shifts responsibility for interior damage to you) ☐ CU — condition unknown (quietly defeats proof of good order at origin) ☐ SD — scratched and dented ☐ M — marred

⚠ A crew that codes an unblemished dresser "SD, CU" has pre-answered your claim. Photographs are the answer, and only if taken before loading.

☐ Do not permit a revised estimate after loading begins. 49 C.F.R. part 375 requires any amendment before loading, in writing, with your agreement.

☐ Confirm the actual carrier's name on the truck and the paperwork; note the DOT number and plates.

☐ Get the origin weight ticket and know that you may demand a reweigh before charges are computed.

☐ Keep a "do not load" zone for essentials: medications, documents, valuables, chargers, and anything you cannot be without for two weeks.

☐ Retain your copy of the inventory and the signed bill of lading before the truck departs.

Stage 5 — Delivery Day: The Overcharge Script

☐ Know your number before the truck arrives. ☐ Non-binding estimate → 110 percent of the estimate ☐ Binding estimate → the binding amount plus only additions agreed before loading

☐ If the demand exceeds that number, do not pay it. Once the money is handed over, the leverage is gone.

☐ Tender the lawful charges in the disclosed payment form and say, plainly:

"I am tendering the lawful charges under 49 C.F.R. part 375. Withholding this shipment above that amount is a hostage load under 49 U.S.C. § 14915. Please deliver."

☐ File a federal complaint while the truck is present and give the driver the complaint number.

☐ Document: truck, plates, USDOT number, driver's name, the carrier's legal name, and the demand — recorded consistent with your state's recording law.

☐ Do not physically block the truck.

☐ Do not permit partial unloading pending payment; it complicates the claim.

☐ If delivery cannot be completed, demand storage-in-transit at the carrier's expense rather than removal to an unknown facility.

☐ Inspect before the crew leaves. Note visible damage on the delivery receipt in writing.

☐ Understand that a clean delivery receipt is not a release — concealed damage remains claimable.

☐ Preserve the private remedies: 49 U.S.C. § 14704 for injury from a carrier's or broker's violation; 49 U.S.C. § 14707 against unregistered operators; 49 U.S.C. § 14711 for state attorney general enforcement; and 49 U.S.C. § 14905 for loading and unloading violations.

Stage 6 — File a Compliant Carmack Claim

☐ File in writing. A phone call is not a claim. An email saying "some things broke" is probably not a claim.

☐ Include the four elements: identification of the shipment; assertion of carrier liability; itemization of the property; and the amount claimed, with enough particularity to permit investigation.

☐ File well inside the carrier's minimum claim period — historically nine months from delivery under 49 U.S.C. § 14706.

☐ Know the burden structure and state it. Under Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Elmore & Stahl, 377 U.S. 134, you prove only:

1. Good condition at origin
2. Damage or non-arrival at destination
3. The amount

The carrier must then prove both freedom from negligence and one of five excepted causes: act of God, public enemy, act of the shipper, public authority, or inherent vice.

☐ Do not plead negligence or a state consumer statute for the cargo loss. Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U.S. 491, preempts those claims. Plead Carmack.

☐ Assemble the proof package: ☐ Descriptive inventory with exception codes ☐ Dated photographs, before and after ☐ Purchase records, appraisals, or comparable replacement listings ☐ Independent repair estimates ☐ Bill of lading showing the valuation option ☐ Weight tickets

☐ Calendar the carrier's obligations under 49 C.F.R. part 370: written acknowledgment in 30 days; pay, decline, or firm offer in 120 days; status updates every 60 days thereafter.

☐ Attack the limitation of liability before arguing amount. A limitation binds only if the carrier offered a genuine choice of liability levels, obtained written agreement, and issued a conforming bill of lading.

☐ Obtain a written disallowance. The two-year-and-one-day suit period runs from disallowance, not delivery — an ambiguous file leaves the deadline undefined.

Stage 7 — Arbitration and Suit

☐ Demand the arbitration program disclosure required by 49 U.S.C. § 14708. Either it exists, or its absence is a violation.

☐ Elect the statutory arbitration program where the claim fits. It is inexpensive, binding on the carrier, at the shipper's option, and dramatically underused.

☐ If suing: plead 49 U.S.C. § 14706 expressly, recite the three elements, and plead regulatory violations separately under 49 U.S.C. § 14704.

☐ Consider small claims for modest amounts — but plead it as a Carmack claim, per Filing, Trying, and Collecting a Small Claims Judgment.

☐ Identify all defendants: carrier; broker, where it misrepresented status or violated 49 C.F.R. part 371; and the surety or insurer under 49 C.F.R. part 387.

☐ Distinguish a contractual arbitration clause in the paperwork from the statutory program; the former is contestable where it displaces the latter.

☐ File regulatory complaints in parallel — federal enforcement under 49 C.F.R. part 386 and state attorney general action under 49 U.S.C. § 14711.

Stage 8 — Storage-in-Transit

☐ Ask in writing which status your goods are in: storage-in-transit (still under the bill of lading, Carmack applies) or permanent storage (warehouse law and the storage act apply).

☐ Demand written notice before any conversion to permanent storage, together with an explanation of the change in liability.

☐ If no conversion notice was given, argue Carmack coverage continued.

☐ Identify who physically holds the goods and under what document; carriers assert possessory liens for lawful charges, and 49 U.S.C. § 80109 addresses liens under bills of lading.

☐ Determine the lawful charge, tender it under protest if necessary to recover the goods, and preserve the overcharge claim.

☐ Do not let storage fees accrue while litigating. They compound the loss and rarely shift.

Stage 9 — Renting a Storage Unit

☐ Read the lien and sale provisions of the rental agreement before signing. Every agreement has them.

☐ Fill in the alternate contact. This one blank line prevents more storage disasters than anything else in this checklist, because most statutes require notice to that person as an independent condition of sale.

☐ Keep the address of record current — update it in writing the week you move, and keep the confirmation.

☐ Photograph and inventory the contents when you load the unit, with dated images.

☐ Read the value limitation. Most agreements cap the operator's liability at a low figure regardless of what is inside.

☐ Check your homeowner's or renter's policy for off-premises coverage before buying the facility's "protection plan," which is frequently a contractual limitation rather than insurance.

☐ Do not store irreplaceable documents, medications, or the only copies of anything.

☐ Know what the statute exempts in your state, and how motor vehicles and watercraft are handled — usually by a separate title-based process.

☐ If anything in the unit is subject to a security interest, know that the statute typically requires notice to the secured party.

☐ Set an autopay and a calendar reminder. The entire lien machinery starts with a missed payment.

Stage 10 — Responding to a Lien or Sale Notice (Days, Not Weeks)

☐ Open every letter from the facility the day it arrives.

☐ Find the sale date. That is the only deadline that matters.

☐ REDEEM FIRST. ARGUE SECOND. In essentially every state you may stop the sale at any time before it occurs by paying the lien amount. Once the goods are sold to a good faith purchaser, they are gone.

⚠ After the sale, Flagg Bros., Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, means there is no due process claim and no 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action — the operator acted privately under a permissive statute, not under color of state law. Your remedy shrinks to damages against an operator holding a limitation clause.

☐ Pay under written protest, listing every disputed line item — "lien processing," "inventory," "lock cutting," and administrative fees are the usual unauthorized charges.

☐ Then audit every statutory element. Obtain and check: ☐ The rental agreement and its lien disclosure ☐ The ledger and the default date — was enforcement premature? ☐ The access-denial record — lockout before default or before notice? ☐ The pre-lien notice: content, method, and proof of mailing ☐ Whether the alternate contact was notified ☐ The advertisement or public notice — correct publication and dates? ☐ The interval between notice and sale — was the waiting period satisfied? ☐ The auction record and bidder list — commercially reasonable? A single bidder, no advertisement, or a sale to an employee or relative is not. ☐ The lien computation — any charge the statute does not authorize? ☐ Whether any perfected secured party was notified

☐ If a sale already occurred, demand a written surplus accounting: gross proceeds, itemized lien amount, itemized costs of sale, and the surplus balance. The operator must hold the surplus for you, and almost no tenant ever claims it.

☐ Consider bankruptcy where the contents far exceed the arrears. The automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362 halts a scheduled auction immediately on filing, and a sale in violation of the stay exposes the operator to sanctions.

☐ Watch the deficiency. If proceeds do not cover the debt, collection by a third party is subject to 15 U.S.C. § 1692, and credit reporting of an extinguished debt is separately actionable.

☐ Consider a state deceptive practices claim. The storage act supplies a lien procedure; it does not license unfair conduct, and 15 U.S.C. § 45 principles inform state analogues.

☐ Do not plead a constitutional claim on ordinary facts. It becomes viable only where a state officer participated in the seizure — Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922 — the same line drawn in Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, and Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp., 395 U.S. 337.

Stage 11 — Intrastate Moves

☐ Confirm the move is entirely within one state. If so, Carmack does not apply.

☐ Identify the regulating agency — public utilities commission, department of transportation, or consumer protection office.

☐ Determine whether the state requires: licensing or permitting; a filed tariff; written estimates; binding estimates; and any percentage cap analogous to the 110 percent rule.

☐ Check for a state hostage-load provision and whether it carries criminal penalties.

☐ Confirm minimum insurance and bonding requirements.

☐ Identify the state's valuation defaults and permitted limitations — they frequently differ from the federal $0.60-per-pound floor.

☐ Note the claim and limitations periods, which are set by state law.

☐ Plead the state UDAP statute. Because there is no federal preemption, your remedial position on an intrastate move is often stronger than on an interstate one.

☐ For mixed shipments — picked up, stored, then delivered — the character turns on the fixed and persisting intent at the time of shipment; an intermediate stop does not defeat interstate status.

Stage 12 — Closing the File

☐ Confirm the claim was resolved in writing, with the basis stated ☐ Confirm any surplus was tendered and received ☐ Confirm no deficiency is being reported to consumer reporting agencies ☐ Diary the two-year-and-one-day suit deadline from any disallowance ☐ Retain the inventory, bill of lading, photographs, and all correspondence for at least three years ☐ File the regulatory complaint even after settlement — the complaint history is what warns the next family

Twelve Failures That Cost Real Money

1. Booking through a broker without knowing it.
2. Initialing released value. A 90-pound armoire becomes $54.
3. Not listing articles of extraordinary value on the high-value inventory.
4. Signing an inventory sheet without reading the exception codes.
5. Letting the estimate be revised after loading begins.
6. Paying a hostage-load demand instead of tendering 110 percent.
7. Calling instead of filing a written claim.
8. Pleading negligence in a case Carmack preempts.
9. Missing the claim period, or never obtaining a written disallowance so the suit clock never starts.
10. Never asking about the free arbitration program under 49 U.S.C. § 14708.
11. Leaving the storage alternate contact blank and the address of record stale.
12. Arguing about fees instead of redeeming before a storage auction.

The Two-Minute Version

Before you book: get the USDOT number, confirm it is a carrier and not a broker, insist on a survey, and ask for a binding not-to-exceed estimate.

When you sign: choose full value protection and list everything worth more than $100 a pound.

On loading day: photograph everything, read the exception codes as the crew writes them, and refuse any revised estimate after loading begins.

At delivery: never pay more than 110 percent of a written non-binding estimate to get your goods off the truck.

If something is broken: file a written claim, promptly, and remember you only have to prove it went in whole and came out broken.

If you rent storage: fill in the alternate contact, keep the address current, and — if a sale notice ever arrives — pay first and argue afterward.

Scripts for the Hard Moments

The driver wants more than the estimate. "I have the signed non-binding estimate here. One hundred ten percent of it is $2,640, and I'm tendering that now in the payment form your paperwork specifies. Under 49 C.F.R. part 375 that is the lawful charge at delivery, and holding the shipment above it is a hostage load under 49 U.S.C. § 14915. I've already filed a complaint — here's the number. Please unload."

The estimator wants to revise after loading. "The regulation requires any amended estimate before loading, in writing, with my agreement. Half my house is on your truck. I'm not signing a new estimate now. Deliver at the estimate we signed, and if you believe more is owed, bill it and I'll pay any lawful balance within thirty days."

Asking about valuation without being talked out of it. "I want full value protection, not released value, and I want the high-value inventory form. What is the additional charge, and what is the minimum declared value?"

The claim adjuster offers sixty cents a pound. "Please send me the bill of lading page showing the liability level I selected and signed, and the tariff provision establishing that I was offered a choice of levels. If the limitation isn't supported by both, the claim is governed by actual loss under 49 U.S.C. § 14706."

The storage manager on the phone before an auction. "I'm paying the lien amount today to redeem before the sale. I'm paying under protest as to the $400 in processing and inventory fees, which I don't believe the statute authorizes, and I'll take that up separately. What is the exact figure and how do you want it delivered?"

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