Rethinking Delinquency Management in Self-Storage Ai Lean & White Label

A Fireside Chat with Ai Lean & White Label Storage

Featuring:

Luke Shardlow, CEO of Ai Lean (collections, compliance, and auction automation)
Peter Smyth, CEO of White Label Storage (3rd-party management for ~250 stores in the U.S. and Canada)

Delinquency management is one of those topics everyone thinks they “have handled” - until it silently eats revenue, consumes staff time, and introduces real legal risk.

In a recent fireside chat, Luke (Ai Lean) and Peter (White Label) unpacked what’s broken in the typical approach and how modern operators are rethinking the entire workflow—from proactive collections to bulletproof compliance and faster unit turns.

Watch the full interview below:

Why “we’ve got it covered” is a costly assumption

Many teams stitch together spreadsheets, static letter sets inside their FMS, and an auction site at the end. The result? Gaps. As Luke shares, operators underestimate three compounding costs:

Lost Revenue: A delinquent unit is offline inventory. If it’s ground floor or near the elevator, the opportunity cost compounds every month—inventory you can never “re-sell” later.
Operational Drag: Manual chasing, ad placement, audits, and timelines add up. Ai Lean customers report ~20 hours saved per facility per month once they automate.
Legal Exposure: State-by-state timelines are unforgiving. A single mistake can trigger fines up to $75,000 per violation (before any civil action).

“Your manual process will never do as good a job as an automated system that consistently applies your preferences within compliant limits.”

— Luke Shardlow, Ai Lean

Where FMS stops… and where Ai Lean begins

Facility Management Software (FMS) is excellent at being a system of record and running core operations. But delinquency is an orchestration problem that sits across compliance and auctions… and that’s where FMS typically stops.

The gap: Most FMS platforms rely on static letter sets and schedules. They don’t dynamically adapt to nuanced state rules or tie those communications to the auction timetable. That’s the “missing middle.”

Ai Lean’s role: Think of Ai Lean as the glue between your FMS and auction outcomes:

Out-of-the-box compliance, state-by-state
Automated timelines that align notices, expirations, ads, and auction windows
Portfolio-level visibility into collections status and auction readiness
Audits that won’t let non-compliant actions proceed (and a roadmap to streamline those audits further)

“We provide a compliant solution out of the box that stitches together the FMS features all the way through to vacating the unit post-auction.”

— Luke Shardlow, Ai Lean

Integrations today: SiteLink, storEDGE, Cubby, Tenant, and SSM (with additional FMS integrations added as customers need them).

Coverage: U.S. and Canada.

Confidence: Ai Lean indemnifies customers for actions taken within the platform’s compliant workflows.

From reactive to proactive: collections that prevent delinquency

Peter shared how White Label evolved from “chasing late payments” to preventing them:

One-click checkout–style payment flows (vs. “log in to your portal” emails)
Earlier in-month campaigns to move non-auto-pay tenants onto autopay
KPI focus: Track and push up your % of tenants on autopay

“You don’t need new software to start. Even staffed stores can comb the rent roll and proactively drive autopay enrollment.”

— Peter Smyth, White Label

Luke agreed: the industry is shifting from “auction cycles” to a collections mindset—collect earlier, collect more, and auction only when optimal.

What a typical timeline looks like (and why automation matters)

Every state varies, but many delinquency processes run ~2 months end-to-end:

Collections efforts (calls, emails, text, proactive outreach)
First legal notice (often snail mail; digital permissible in some states)
Second notice with its own expiration
Required advertising (publication vs. digital, per jurisdiction)
Auction and vacate/re-rent

Manually tracking all of that—addresses, expirations, proof of mailing, ad requirements, notice content, and 50+ audit points—is a recipe for slippage.

Ai Lean automates:

Digital Proof of Mailing (POM) archived to each record
Audit rules that block non-compliant actions
Consistent, on-time movement through each compliance step
One more unit pushed to auction per facility per month (on average) due to fewer missed timelines and tighter execution

Customization—without compromising compliance

Every operator has a voice and a risk posture. When Ai Lean rebuilt its platform in 2024, flexibility was a core design goal:

Templates & tone: Brand voice, message templates, and non-statutory comms are customizable.
Cadence: Frequency, method (email/SMS/mail), and volume are configurable within bright-line legal limits.
Guardrails: Statutory notices keep tighter controls so you stay compliant.

M&A scenario: inheriting other people’s exposure

Buying a facility? You’re buying the delinquency state of the portfolio, too.

Practical playbook from the webinar:

Before close: Gather all documentation and delinquency status as part of diligence.
Day 1: Issue your new lease (e.g., a vetted “Zucker” lease) with a 30-day notice for terms to take effect.
Run off-cycle auctions (state-permitting) to compress timelines and clear inherited backlogs quickly.
Don’t over-audit history when records are messy; hit reset and move forward compliantly.

Sticky edge cases (and how to think about them)

Abandoned vehicles or “junk”: Default to towing laws where applicable. Your goal isn’t to maximize auction dollars on oddball assets—it’s to clear the unit and re-rent quickly.
Bad addresses & snail mail: Send to the lease address; Ai Lean stores digital POMs and metadata for defensible records.

The AI horizon: where to apply it now

AI is moving faster than any previous tech wave. Still, the best gains today come from high-signal, well-scoped uses:

Customer service (organize a robust, facility-specific knowledge base so AI agents answer accurately and consistently)
Process visibility and explainability (e.g., “why did this unit get paused?” answers on demand)
Audit triage (turn your top 6 recurring support questions into self-serve resolutions)

“Don’t just slam AI in randomly. Start with immediate, obvious use cases that deliver value on day one.” — Luke

Quick math: why this matters

20+ hours saved per facility per month → reallocated to sales, occupancy, or centralized ops
One more unit to auction per facility per month (on average) → fewer stuck units, faster turns
$75,000 per-violation risk on compliance missteps → reduced via guardrails, audits, and records
Portfolio-level coordination across jurisdictions → fewer delays, cleaner timelines, better cash conversion

TL;DR Key Takeaways

Delinquency isn’t a back-office task—it’s a revenue, efficiency, and risk function.
FMS ≠ delinquency orchestration. You need dynamic, state-aware timelines that connect notices to auctions.
Automate the middle. Ai Lean stitches FMS and auction steps into a compliant, audit-ready pipeline.
Go upstream. Drive autopay, add one-click payment flows, and reduce late-stage delinquencies.
During acquisitions, hit reset. New leases + compressed, off-cycle auctions clear inherited exposure fast.

Mini-FAQ

What FMS platforms integrate with Ai Lean?
SiteLink, storEDGE, Cubby, Tenant, and SSM (and we add others as customers need them).

How customizable is it?
Brand voice, workflows, templates, frequency, channels—customizable within compliance guardrails.

What’s a “typical” timeline?
Roughly two months, but state rules drive notice expirations and ad requirements. Automation keeps everything on time.

How do you handle proof and audits?
Ai Lean digitally archives Proof of Mailing and metadata, audits 50+ data points, and blocks non-compliant actions.

Is there a minimum portfolio size?
Not required. Value grows with multi-state ops, remote models, and distributed teams—but single-facility owners use Ai Lean for the risk reduction and indemnification alone.

Get your compliance handled—and your time back

If delinquency is costing you time, tying up inventory, or keeping you awake at night, it’s time to automate the middle.

See Ai Lean in action: Request a demo

About White Label Storage: Third-party management for ~250 stores, U.S. and Canada, with a proactive approach to collections and customer experience. Learn more at whitelabelstorage.com.