Who pays for storage while an estate is being sorted out?

The estate usually bears the cost in the end, but we charge the person named on the storage agreement, as each payment falls due. If you're the executor or administrator and rent a unit for the estate's belongings, the fees are yours to pay us (clause 5). Once you're the executor or administrator, the law in England lets you pay them out of the estate's money, or be repaid from it, as long as they're "expenses properly incurred" (Trustee Act 2000, section 31, which section 35 applies to personal representatives). Storage fees don't stop when someone dies: if the person who died rented a unit with us and the agreement is in their own name, it and its fees carry on, unless otherwise agreed in writing, until someone gives written notice (clause 41), and unpaid bills are among the debts the executor or administrator settles from the estate. Keep every invoice, and if you're unsure whether a cost counts, ask the estate's solicitor.

At a glance

If you're the executor or administrator

You don't need to wait for the grant to rent a unit. Our guide for solicitors says an executor can rent "on behalf of the estate from day one", with the contract "signed in the executor's name, in their capacity as executor of the estate". If there's no will, the authority comes with the grant; GOV.UK's inheritance checker shows who can apply. Until the grant arrives, rent in your own name and agree with the family who pays. Our pages don't set out whether fees you pay before a grant can be repaid once the grant makes you administrator, so keep every receipt and ask a solicitor, including what you can move before the grant.

If the estate won't need a grant (GOV.UK says "You may not need probate" in some cases), agree repayment in writing with the people who will inherit.

Section 31 of the Trustee Act 2000 says a trustee "is entitled to be reimbursed from the trust funds, or … may pay out of the trust funds, expenses properly incurred by him when acting on behalf of the trust", and section 35 applies that to "a personal representative administering an estate". Our executor guide says storage fees paid in the course of administering an estate are "generally treated as a legitimate estate expense".

A few things protect you:

• If there's more than one of you, GOV.UK says you "should agree with the others" on "rules on making withdrawals or payments from any accounts connected to the estate". Agree the unit and who pays before booking.
• If you pay the fees yourself, as executor or as administrator once the grant is issued, keep the receipts: section 31 covers these too, including fees on a unit the person who died already had.
• Keep enough back for the fees until the unit is empty. GOV.UK says to place a notice in The Gazette giving any creditors 2 months to claim; the storage bill is one you already know about. GOV.UK warns that if you distribute early "and the estate then cannot afford to pay a debt, you may have to pay it yourself."
• If the estate might not cover what it owes, take advice before paying anything from it.

To budget: on our September 2026 price lists, the median (middle value) of the listed prices is about £78 every four weeks for 25 sq ft and about £143 for 50 sq ft, before any introductory offer, and some sites list smaller units. The goods must remain "adequately insured" for their "Replacement Value" (clause 31), so include contents protection or the estate's own cover in the estimate. Nothing is added at checkout: the total in your quote is what you pay, and our prices include VAT.

Can the estate pay storage costs directly?

Our solicitor guide says an executor can rent a unit "on behalf of the estate, using estate funds", with the executor as the named customer. Our pages don't say whether an executorship account or a solicitor's client account can pay for a unit in the executor's name, or how the invoice names the customer, so ask us before the first payment.

If you're paying or helping for someone else

Paying for a unit, or holding the access as an "Agent" ("persons who you authorise, or who accompany you, to access the Unit"), doesn't make you the customer. If you aren't the executor or administrator, the section 31 right belongs to them, so agree in writing how you'll be paid back before you pay.

If you paid a parent's storage under a lasting power of attorney, GOV.UK says: "Usually it ends because the donor has died." The unit and its fees then pass to the executor or administrator to deal with.

If your firm rents a unit for a client's estate

Your firm is the named customer and pays us. The customer also promises they're "entitled at law to deal with" the goods "as agent for the owner" (clause 1(c)), so get the personal representative's instruction in writing first. We "will issue an electronic invoice following payment" (clause 5).

If the person who died already rented a unit with us

Our terms don't mention a customer dying, so several points here are questions for us rather than written rules. Our terms charge "the customer named in this Agreement", so check the name on the front. If it's a company rather than the person who died, the company is our customer, and whether the business or the estate bears the fees is a question for the estate's solicitor or the company's accountant.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the agreement ends by written notice (clause 41), and fees keep falling due until then. If the payments came from the account holder's own card or bank account, a payment may not go through once the bank knows about the death. A missed payment brings a late payment fee (clause 5), and the value of any discounts or special offers already given becomes "payable by You in full" (clause 6). Unpaid fees can lead to refused access and, if they stay unpaid after a written notice, to the sale of the goods (clauses 6 and 8), so ring us before the next date. If you pay, ask us how to identify the payment (clause 5). Check, too, that the goods are still insured for their "Replacement Value" (clause 31).

To take the unit over, our practice is generally to ask for the death certificate and the grant: see what happens to a storage unit when the renter dies.

If your own unit holds the estate's things

The fees are yours under your agreement, and if you aren't the executor or administrator you need their agreement to keep the estate's goods (clause 1(c)), so agree who pays at the same time. See storing someone else's belongings.

Keeping the cost down

Give written notice (clause 41) once a clearance date is fixed; our move-out FAQ says the notice period is "Normally 14 days". Clear the unit by the end date, because goods left after it can run up fees and disposal costs (clause 7): see how to give notice.

Talk to us first

Call 0800 2545585 or use our contact page. Ask us:

• how to pay a unit held in the name of someone who has died;
• what we need to move a unit into the executor's or a beneficiary's name;
• whether anything can be paused while the grant is awaited.

If you need a unit for the estate now, get a price online or find a site on our locations page.

Related questions

• What happens to a storage unit when the person renting it dies?
• What happens to anything I leave behind in my unit?
• Can someone else sign the storage agreement for me?

This page explains our own storage terms and points to the law in England. It isn't legal or tax advice.