Bike Shifting in Avalahalli

Avalahalli, the layout near Anjanapura on the Kanakapura Road side of south Bangalore, is still filling up with newly built houses. Our packers page here is about a common pattern: a family builds a house, lives on one floor and lets the other, so two households move onto one plot in the same month. (The Aavalahalli beside Medahalli in east Bangalore, where our office is, has its own page.)

The bikes come with them. The owner's family usually has a scooter and perhaps a motorcycle. The tenant has one or two of their own. And a typical new house on a plot here has one gate, a front setback a few metres deep, and perhaps a covered porch. That's the parking for everyone.

When both households move in within days of each other, the bikes arrive into a space nobody has divided yet. The first one in takes the covered spot. The second parks where the gate swings. By the end of the week, someone's scooter is boxed in, someone's car can't get out, and the owner and tenant are discussing parking before they've finished unpacking.

The fix is a conversation before either bike arrives.

Walk the front of the house together. Owner and tenant, or owner alone before the tenant visits, should stand in the setback and look at where each vehicle can actually go without blocking the gate, the door, the meter box or the staircase to the upper floor.

Give each bike a spot. A painted mark or just an agreed corner: the owner's scooter by the porch, the tenant's motorcycle by the compound wall, and a clear path to the gate. If there's a car, its space comes first, since bikes can fit around it.

Put it in the rental agreement. A line in the agreement saying which parking the tenant gets avoids a later disagreement, especially if more tenants arrive on a third floor.

Plan the order of arrival. If the owner's household moves first, its bikes go into their agreed spots and the tenant's spots are left clear. If the tenant moves first, the owner's spots stay empty until they arrive.

Mind the new surfaces. A freshly laid driveway or tiled porch scratches easily. A bike's side stand on new tiles, or a carrier ramp dragged across them, leaves marks. Ask the crew to put a board under the ramp's foot, and use a stand pad on new tiles.

Think about charging. If either household has an electric scooter, decide where it charges and on whose meter. In a house with separate meters per floor, the tenant's scooter should charge from the tenant's supply, not the owner's porch socket.

Bike collections and deliveries in Avalahalli are made by our crew, who'll place each bike in the spot you've agreed rather than wherever is free. Each household's bike gets its own written figure once surveyed, and we answer for it until it stands in its spot.

The front of a new house also changes in the first months. A compound gate gets fitted, a garden is planted, a water tank goes in at the side. Leave room for those plans when allotting bike spots, so nobody has to move later.

And if the setback simply isn't big enough for every vehicle, say so early. A tenant who expects covered parking for two bikes and finds space for one will be unhappy from day one. It's better settled before the agreement is signed.

An electric scooter in a two household house needs a charging point on its own household's meter. Decide that before the scooter arrives, and don't run a cable from the other floor's socket. Mention the model on the booking call.