Self-storage giant Extra Space must pay back NYC users for rat-infested units, price hikes

Published Jul 8, 2026

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When Raquel Aliaga moved into her ailing mother’s 950 square-foot apartment in Briarwood, Queens, the 45-year-old paralegal needed to do some serious downsizing. Her furniture, clothes, and the “little treasures” she collected on her travels all went into a self-storage facility in College Point.

She said her troubles began when the company Extra Space took over management of the facility in 2023.

“They raised my rent without any notice, it wasn’t in the contract,” Aliaga said. Her unit jumped from $264 a month to $344 with no notice. Eventually she was locked out of her storage space. “I couldn’t physically get into my unit,” she said.

Aliaga was one of more than 100 New Yorkers who filed complaints with the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection about Extra Space, one of the largest self-storage companies. Customer complaints included flooded and vermin-infested units, along with unexpected price hikes.

On Wednesday, the city announced a $1.7 million settlement with Extra Space, resolving a three-year investigation and lawsuit. Officials said $1 million will be going back to customers through a restitution fund. The remaining $700,000 covers civil penalties.

The company says it serves more than 100,000 New Yorkers.

“People pay Extra Space to protect the things that matter most to them, not to have those belongings neglected, held hostage or auctioned off,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “This company — like others in this industry — lured New Yorkers in with low prices, jacked up prices, let units rot and took people's property when they couldn’t keep up.”

The publicly traded company, which is valued at more than $30 billion, did not admit liability as part of the settlement.

"While we maintain our disagreement with the allegations raised in the complaint, we chose to settle this matter to best serve the interests of our customers, team members, and stakeholders," company spokesperson McKall Morris said. "We remain committed to providing quality self-storage services and delivering a positive experience for our customers."

A photo of a dead rat in an Extra Space storage unit submitted to the city by an aggrieved customer.

Mamdani has said cracking down on corporate abuse is one of the ways his administration will ease the city’s affordability crisis.

So far, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has recovered $13.2 million in 2026 on behalf of workers, consumers and small businesses.

The latest settlement comes ahead of a new licensing requirement that takes effect Aug. 25 for all self-storage companies operating in the city. It will require self-storage companies to make their rates fully transparent and prohibit the kind of bait-and-switch pricing tactics that lure consumers in and then leave them on the hook for higher costs.

The companies will also be required to make sure they maintain units, end false advertising to lure customers in with lower prices and ensure people have an option to end their contract instead of paying increases.

Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Sam Levine said the settlement and new licensing mandate sends a message to the self-storage industry.

“I think these companies feel they have a captive audience, captive consumers, and they're taking advantage of that,” Levine said. “One of the things that we're doing both through this enforcement action and through the licensing regime we're setting up is to make sure that companies can't continue to exploit the power they have over consumers who entrust them with their goods.”

Beginning on Aug. 1, consumers will be able to apply to the $1 million restitution fund by sending an email to the agency that details their experience, including all supporting documents. Those requests will then be reviewed by staff who will make determinations on each case.

Claim forms will be available to consumers on the agency’s website starting next month and can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed directly.

Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.

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