A South Brisbane resident’s steely warning found passionate support from fellow Queenslanders, who believed Airbnb hosts were behind the frustrating issue.

The image was shared to Reddit last week and shows a note tied to a chain link fence on Hope St in South Brisbane.

“This is to notify the owners of all padlocks, chains and key boxes/safes attached to this gate. You are trespassing on private property: you do not have permission to chain your key boxes/safes to this fence,” the note reads.

The note gained support online from fellow Brisbane residents. Photo / FantasticChange7018, Reddit

If owners of the lock boxes did not remove them by a certain date, the owner of the fence would remove them, it added.

 “We will be cutting them off and removing them from this fence on May 31, 2023.”

The person who shared the image to the Brisbane Reddit page suggested the key boxes belonged to Airbnb hosts.

“F**k you if you own Airbnbs on Hope St,” they wrote in the caption of the post, adding that they hated anyone who owned the key boxes.

Lockboxes are a popular way for Airbnb hosts to securely give guests access to their keys without having to physically be there. Typically, these lockboxes or safes are located on the property.

However, Reddit users offered an explanation as to why these ones were located off the property and on a fence.

“I’d be willing to bet the owners probably don’t have body corporate approval to host Airbnbs and are doing this to get away with it,” one person speculated. “You don’t chain a bunch of key safes to some random post on someone else’s property unless you’re pulling a dodgy.”

Another person who lived in the neighbourhood attested to this and said management did not permit people to short-term rent their apartments.

“The South Brisbane apartment complex I was in didn’t allow short stays so some Airbnb owners would do this to get around the by-laws,” they wrote.

As for how the gate owner’s note, some said it was too kind towards the pesky lockbox owners.

One person said giving notice was “too generous”, while another said there was “not need to advertise the problem”, and they should just glue the locks shut.

“Just encase the lot in hard-set expanding foam,” another person added.