Renter Laura Koefoed has actually revealed her stress after strata elected versus bikes being maintained in her apartment or condo block. · Source: Supplied
ASydney tenant has actually pounded “out of touch” financial investment homeowner after they refuted a demand to mount a bike brace at her apartment or condo block or to save them in any kind of typical locations. The 30-year-old stated it was one more “frustrating” instance of exactly how proprietors dealt with real estate as a service, instead of as a person’s home.
Laura Koefoed pays $500 a week to lease a “shoebox” small apartment in Sydney’s internal west. The media consultant informed Yahoo Finance she can not manage to purchase an automobile, and does not have a garage with her workshop, so she depends on her bike as her key kind of transport.
This week, Koefoed stated the strata board elected versus bikes being kept at the 12-unit apartment or condo block due to the fact that it was “not a good look” for the structure. Koefoed stated several locals at the structure had bikes yet there was just presently one area to save a bike.
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“The only option will be perhaps seeing if they let me have a wall bracket in my rental. Even then a bike takes up so much space when you don’t have space,” she stated.
“I don’t want to leave it outside or in the elements where it gets rusty. I can’t afford a new bike [if it gets stolen], I need to know that it’s safe.”
Koefoed stated among her neighbors, an owner-occupier, had actually used to spend for the bike brace for the structure so it would certainly not have actually set you back the strata anything.
But she stated the “simple request” which would certainly have made a “massive difference” for renters was refuted, in addition to the capacity for locals to save their bikes alike locations like the washing and precede under the stairwell where they are presently put.
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Koefoed stated the concern was symptomatic of a much deeper trouble with the manner in which some home capitalists saw real estate.
“For me, it’s about the bigger picture of housing being treated as a business to the point where people’s lives are governed because of an aesthetic reason from owners,” she informed Yahoo Finance.
“If you’re not rich enough to own a property then your entire life is governed to the point where you can’t even park a bike safely near your home.”
Koefoed stated most of locals in the apartment or condo block were tenants. Only 4 of the systems have al fresco cars and truck rooms, while around half have verandas.
Koefoed stated she was maintaining her bike in the structure’s washing as she has no garage or porch. ·Source: TikTok
Strata Community Association NSW connection supervisor Scott Martin informed Yahoo Finance strata was “like the fourth level of government” and there might be a great deal of inner national politics at play when picking problems.
Martin stated however renters had “very little say at all”.
“From a tenant’s perspective, ultimately, their line of process is they have a relationship with the leasing agent and should be going through the leasing agent,” he described.
“The leasing agent has a relationship with the landlord or the owner of the property. Who then says, ‘This tenant wants to put a bike rack in, is it ok to make an application?’
“Then they contact the strata supervisor that serves as the representative for the proprietors company.”
The issue would then need to be voted on at a general meeting.
“The renter can take place the board, this is the regulation, yet they do not have any kind of ballot civil liberties and they can not talk to anything to do with financials. It’s insane,” Martin said.
Martin said it was ” aggravating” that a ” easy procedure” of adding a bike rack involved so much red tape.
Koefoed admitted she felt nervous speaking up about the bike issue and worried that “kicking up a stink” could mean she gets kicked out of her rental where she has been living for the past five months.
“I can’t help but feel nervous because you feel like you don’t have a lot of rights as a renter,” she said.
The NSW government banned no grounds evictions for the state’s 2.2 million renters in October, which the government said would help renters “make a house a home”.
Tenants’ Union of NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross said the reform was the “single most significant change” the government could make to the residential tenancies law.
Koefoed said the issue underscored a deeper problem with the way some property investor’s treated housing as a business. ·Source: Supplied/TikTok
“Millions of renters have felt the impact of no grounds evictions in their lives – whether it was hesitating to ask for repairs or negotiate a rent increase, or having to find a new home without justification,” he said.
The change was part of a suite of rental reforms in the state, including limiting rent increases to once per year, making it easier to have pets in rentals, and banning background checks when applying for a property.
The Tenants’ Union said the reforms weren’t perfect but they marked a significant step “toward a fairer and more balanced rental landscape”.
Koefoed shared her story online and has been met with an influx of responses, as well as Aussies sharing their own rental and strata stories.
“It’s so ridiculous that you’re not allowed to have your own mode of transport at your property?? The owners know how small the spaces they rent out are already how can they expect you to keep a bike inside too?” one said.
“Yeah we had the same problem in Brunswick where they were like ‘We’ll give you two weeks to remove your bikes or they will be removed’ so I locked my bike to a pole outside and then it got stolen,” another said.
“I just got my first place on a strata and it’s kind of wild how nonchalantly they ask you to vote on things which would have massive ramifications for residents,” a third added.
Other Aussies said they agreed with the strata’s decision and thought bikes were an “eyesore” for buildings, while another argued tenants should be responsible for finding somewhere to store their bikes themselves.
Koefoed has argued that investment property owners have a responsibility to ensure their rental properties are “safe and accommodate people’s lives and that includes access to appropriate common spaces”.
Koefoed said she planned to keep fighting the issue and was seeing if a tenant delegate could be added to the strata committee.
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