Sally says:

What a horrible situation you found yourself in. Losing your wife in such shocking circumstances must have been hard to deal with. The last thing you needed was the storage company turning you away when you came to collect your family’s belongings.

While a firm must make checks after a customer has passed away, there are surely more pragmatic ways of dealing with the bereaved. Yours is not the first case I’ve come across where someone has had their belongings removed without warning from a storage service and then lost forever.

I find it worrying that property can be discarded, seemingly without a second thought, by companies we rely on to keep it safe. Those childhood toys may not have been worth a great deal but are irreplaceable because of the memories they hold.

I asked Access Storage what it was planning to do about compensating you. After a few days investigating it confirmed your items were jettisoned because it had not received requested documents from you within its set deadline of 12 months.

A spokesman said: “Customers are at the forefront of our brand and we are committed to providing the best customer service. This includes ensuring that we act responsibly in situations of a sensitive nature. On this occasion we advised on the legal documentation required from a beneficiary to release storage items. In this case, they remained in storage for up to 12 months as a hold period, while we waited for the documentation to be submitted. Paperwork was not submitted within the timeframe.”

I understand there must be rules but these were unusual times due to Covid and you had suffered a bereavement. Plus, you had tried numerous times to speak to the company.

In any case, I felt your belongings should not have been disposed of permanently. So much for putting customers first. After my intervention, and some discussion between the company and you, Access agreed to pay £1,500 in compensation, which you accepted.

The spokesman said: “We recognise that this is an exceptional case, and we are working to improve our communications if a ­similar incident occurs in the future.”