34B Gower Street, Ashfield NSW 2131

Property looks great on the surface after a recent renovation, but it has major underlying issues and an extremely difficult owner. We initially agreed on ,100 per week rent, then were ghosted for two weeks before being told the owner had changed his mind to ,250. The main living space has very little natural light — we developed vitamin D deficiencies. The owner insisted we keep a non-functional security system plugged in despite visible power to the box, refused to explain it, and ignored concerns. Hot water in the kitchen takes minutes to arrive because the owner routed it through a light-up faucet sensor. Appliances were clearly not new; dishwasher barely worked, oven buttons randomly activated — it once turned itself to pizza mode at 250 °C mid-night. Every maintenance request went to the owner first; he promised fixes in “two weeks” that never came. He later raised rent to ,350 per week, then served another increase notice to ,500. When we raised issues, he said he’d fix them only if we accepted the rent hike. We moved out instead. On a positive note, the café on the corner is great.