BILL AS INTRODUCED H.529
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1 H.529
2 Introduced by Representatives Williams of Barre City, Anthony of Barre City,
3 Berbeco of Winooski, Carpenter of Hyde Park, Chase of
4 Chester, Christie of Hartford, Cole of Hartford, Headrick of
5 Burlington, Howard of Rutland City, Hyman of South
6 Burlington, Krasnow of South Burlington, Mulvaney-Stanak of
7 Burlington, Page of Newport City, Priestley of Bradford, Rice
8 of Dorset, Stebbins of Burlington, Torre of Moretown, and
9 White of Bethel
10 Referred to Committee on
11 Date:
12 Subject: Public safety; emergency management; storage unit availability
13 Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to inform the
14 public of the availability of storage units across the State during a state of
15 emergency.
16 An act relating to publishing storage unit availability during a state of
17 emergency VT LEG #372251 v.1
 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.529
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1 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
2 Sec. 1. 20 V.S.A. § 48 is added to read:
3 § 48. STORAGE UNIT AVAILABILITY DURING EMERGENCY
4 (a) During a state of emergency called for by the Governor of this State:
5 (1) Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) shall maintain a list of
6 self-storage facilities located and operational within the State with details
7 pursuant to subdivision (2) of this subsection.
8 (2) A self-storage facility shall provide to VEM the following details:
9 (A) the business name of the self-storage facility;
10 (B) the physical address of the self-storage facility;
11 (C) the website address for the self-storage facility, if available;
12 (D) the phone number for the self-storage facility; and
13 (E) the number of units available to lease at the self-storage facility.
14 (3) VEM shall transmit data received from a self-storage facility to
15 Vermont 211 or other approved State agency in a reasonable amount of time.
16 (4) Vermont 211 or other approved State agency shall publish the
17 availability of self-storage units, including data from subdivision (2) of this
18 subsection.
19 (5) A self-storage facility shall update VEM with the number of storage
20 units available to lease at least once every 24 hours.
VT LEG #372251 v.1
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1 (b) No self-storage facility during a state of emergency shall lease a self-
2 storage unit for an amount that represents an unconscionably high price. A
3 price is unconscionably high if the amount charged by the self-storage facility
4 during the state of emergency represents a gross disparity between the price of
5 a storage unit charged by a similar business and the price at which a similar
6 storage unit was offered for lease by that business in the usual course of
7 business immediately prior to the date of the declaration of the state of
8 emergency.
9 Sec. 2. EFFECTIVE DATE
10 This act shall take effect on July 1, 2024.
VT LEG #372251 v.1