SecureCare Self Storage Inc. will be recovering unpaid cell-tower rent that dates back to 2006 after the company discovered that Verizon Communications, Inc. had not been properly paying for its leased space at SecureCare’s 426 S. College Road location.

The discovery was made by Nashville, Tenn.-based Vertical Consultants, whom SecureCare hired in 2011 to review the cell-tower and roof-top leases on their storage properties. Its investigation led to the discovery that Verizon had been occupying additional space at the property without declaring it or acquiring authorization.

Vertical Consultants contacted SecureCare’s corporate office in Lone Tree, Colo., offering its services, which were gladly accepted. The consulting firm was able to identify two issues very quickly which led to the recovery of back rent and the renegotiation of a substantially higher rate for the space being rented.

According to Vertical Consultants president Hugh Odum, his firm increased SecureCare’s revenue from Verizon by 198 percent; the storage company will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue over the remainder of the lease term.

The entire process took about six weeks, Odum said.

There are thousands of self-storage properties in North America that lease a portion of their property to a telecom carrier for cell tower placement. “Most property owners believe that once they’ve signed a lease with one of these companies, the property’s ‘true value’ is simply the rent check they receive each month. Actually, that’s not the case at all,” Odum explained.

“The issue is that all across the country people who have telecom towers on their property don’t know the true value of that lease because they are just seeing it as renting space. Most carriers and tower companies rely upon that lack of information to go out and lock these deals that are undervaluing the properties because the owner was unaware or misled,” he added.

Vertical Consultants was founded in 2010 by Odom. The company is staffed by veterans of the wireless industry who specialize in telecom-site acquisition and development, lease negotiations and the legal issues within this field.

SecureCare Self Storage Inc. has 135 facilities in 11 states.