Gothamist77%
Self-storage giant Extra Space must pay back NYC users for rat-infested units 32%
By Brigid Bergin0%
7/8/2026, 8:29:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Appeal to Emotion, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 17.7% saturation with 171 hits. Analysis detected 1,353 faulty-reasoning hits from 964 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 41.1% and a BS Rank of 32% (14,054 of 20,453 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 68.70% of the article peer group.
Self-storage giant Extra Space must pay back NYC users for rat-infested units, price hikes
Published Jul 8, 2026
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026.
Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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.
Jersey City mayor’s proposed budget combines contentious 15.5% tax hike with $58M in cuts
Mayor James Solomon released his official spending plan after weeks of fractious debate over taxes.
Published Jul 11, 2026 at 12:23 p.m.
ET
1 man killed, 2 people injured in Harlem shooting, NYPD says
No arrests had been made as of Saturday morning, police said.
NY AG says Cash App exposed vulnerable users to 'rampant fraud'
NYC piloting silent, electric batteries for food carts around Queens park
Man pleads not guilty to shooting 8 people, including 4 kids, at July 4 Coney Island BBQ
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Speakers
6speakers26%attributed speech712writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageZohran Mamdani
62 attributed words25% of attributed speech65% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.