Unfortunately, the section of HB 1259 which would have granted storage facilities the ability to post their legal notices on a publicly available website, was stripped from the bill in order to get other amendments passed. We were almost there, until the lobbyists for the newspapers swarmed in to impose their opposition. Of course newspapers in Texas would oppose this change, they stand to lose millions in annual revenue. By opposing this bill, they have essentially held Texas storage facilities captive and forbid the use of the most effective technology for notifying the public of an upcoming storage auction event - The Internet.
I understand, that to the newspapers, this is all about money. But what they need to realize is that technology has changed and that printed legal notices no longer represent the best interest of storage facilities, the public or the delinquent tenant. Perhaps, in the future, our law makers will consider this and we can move forward into today's technology.
While I would have loved to have seen this passed, you have to look from the other side as well. Historically, the reason behind the printed notification was two fold (no pun intended). Back in the day it was the best medium of public communication. The secondary reason was documentary. One was able to retain the printed material as proof of the due diligence of notification. When using electronic/digital media items can be altered. It is too easy to do a last minute modification to a posting. Granted, the latter is just conjecture on my part…
I agree with you, electronic/digital media can be altered. But what motivation would a third party website have to alter a legal notice? To protect a storage facility? Hypothetically, if this change in the law were to take effect, and AuctionsTX.com began publishing notices of public sales in Texas, we would hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards. Proving due diligence could be accomplished by publishing past editions of our auction lists and making them available to the public in a searchable database. This would make a specific notice easier for a delinquent tenant and/or storage facility management to locate.