A tenant has hit out at the owners of her apartment building for being “out of touch” and refusing to let her keep her bike in the common area.
Laura Koefoed rents a “shoebox” studio in Sydney’s Inner West for $500 a week and relies on a bicycle to get around the city as she can’t afford a car.
But even if he could afford a vehicle, his studio doesn’t have parking and there’s now nowhere in the building to store his bike.
The strata committee voted against occupants of the 12-unit building storing their bikes in communal areas because it was not a “good look” for the apartment block.
Koefoed told Daily Mail Australia there was only one place to store bikes in the building and his studio was too small to store them.
“If I could explain how small my one-room studio is,” he said.
“It’s just a bedroom, living room, dining room, etc. It sucks that they wouldn’t consider allowing bikes in perfectly reasonable common areas.”
Although many of the building’s occupants also had bicycles, among them there was only one place to store them.
Laura Koefoed rents a “shoebox” studio in Sydney’s Inner West for $500 a week and relies on a bicycle to get around the city as she can’t afford a car.
Koefoed said he didn’t want to leave his bike outside in case it was stolen or rusted.
Although a good Samaritan neighbor offered to pay for the bike rack so that Stratas and the homeowners committee would not have to pay the cost, the offer was rejected.
Mr Koefoed said having a bike rack was a “simple request” and had the potential to make a “big difference”.
But common area storage was also ruled out, as residents will no longer be able to store their bikes in areas like the laundry room or under stairs, where people used to park them.
The block of units where Mrs Koefoed lives is mainly occupied by tenants and only four of the apartments have outdoor parking spaces and only half have balconies.
Mrs. Koefoed’s studio does not have a balcony.
The tenant said the problem was a sign of a deeper problem in the housing market, where investors viewed housing as a business concerned with aesthetics and not as someone’s home.
“This really goes beyond the bike situation,” Ms Koefoed said.
The strata committee voted against occupants of the 12-unit building storing their bikes in communal areas because it was not a “good look” for the apartment block.
“This was just proof of how little they care about the lives of the people they benefit from financially.”
Koefoed shared her frustration on TikTok, where some social media users blamed her, saying she should go buy a house and then she could do whatever she wanted.
He called the reaction “ridiculous.”
“People have told me that if I want a place to store my bike, I should buy a house,” he said.
‘Do you think I would be renting a studio the size of a shoebox with no separate bedroom etc.’ for $500 a week if I could afford to buy a bigger house?’
The media consultant said she left home when she was 17 and worked “very hard” to pay $500 a week rent on her own.
“So this idea that I need to work harder or that something is wrong with me because I can’t afford to buy a house is ridiculous,” Ms. Koefoed said.
“I think people understand the struggle, but there’s a mentality of ‘well, I had to do it, which means you do too.’
“Instead of using their experience and creating change, they perpetuate this unhealthy narrative.”
Strata Community Association NSW Relationship Manager Scott Martin said yahoo those strata had become ‘like the fourth level of government’ and there tended to be internal politics when a building voted on issues.
Martin said tenants don’t have much say in strata matters, but they can raise any issues or requests with their leasing agent, because they can approach the landlord about the issues on the tenant’s behalf.
But Ms Koefoed has not yet approached her agent to ask the landlord’s permission to install a cycle rack inside her studio because she is “afraid of putting so much pressure on him that she might be evicted” and she has only been there for five months.
“I’ll do it this week, but I’m taking it easy,” he said.
The media advisor is aware that she may have “created a stir,” which could mean he “could find a reason” to evict her if he wanted to.
Groundless evictions were banned in New South Wales for the state’s 2.2 million tenants in October, but they will not begin until 2025.
They will be extended to housing lease contracts signed before the start of the event.