Owner's Pride?

Buying a home always has a special place in our heart.  But while its human nature to want to have a place to belong, a home isn't just where you are, it's who you are. And it's true that part of why my home feels like mine is because I'm the one paying for it, not my parents. Doesn’t matter if it is the 1st buy or 3rd, whether it is for our own living purpose or just investment. Before putting our hard-earned money we will do every risk analysis involved in under-construction project. We go through the endless options whether there is some place with better schools, a better neighborhood, more green space, and on and on. 

And in a under-construction project we may go every month to check the progress and when the builder demands for the last 95% amount, we start to weave dreams about how and what we are going to do when we get into our home. For the 1st time buyers this is the most exciting phase. The countdown begins before the builder gives possession.

And then days turn into months and months into years and there is no sign of builder giving possession.

Like every home buyer excited with what the project was offering and the promising brochure etc. We booked our dream home in January 2015 paying 95% amount as the building was ready and only garden and other amenities work was to be done as told to us by their Sales rep.

Today it is March 2016 and still there is no sign of the podium or the club house or even MSEB connection.

What can a middle class man do in such a case? The most heard answer is go to Consumer Court.

Where we have to persuade others and are forced by the builder to chase the woven dream through endless work with no chance of justifiable or applicable results.

But the problem doesn’t end here(Read here).

Assured possession as per the agreement and Sales VP in August 2015, I started planning for the interior July. Since I wanted to buy furniture online from Urban Ladder, I decided to draw the plan in Auto CAD. And so we went to measure the flat and when we made the outline. We were baffled as nothing matched. The measurements of each rooms were 6 inches to 12 inches lesser than that mentioned in the brochure on the basis of which we had decided to go for buying the flat. And when we did the sum of each rooms, passage, foyer, terrace, balcony etc. the value came as a great shock - it was so unexpected.

The builder was cheating in Carpet area.

For most of us we are not even aware of this term as all the builders sell on “Saleable” area.

And the funny part is that the builder justified this deficiency by “Plaster thickness”. I mean c’mon plaster thickness will eat up 8-12 inches of your room size.

And what’s more ironic is that the government has imposed builders to mention carpet area in the agreement but the definition of carpet area – what to include and what to exclude is not clear in the government documents. And they take advantage of such loop holes.

Most buyers don’t even know these government documents and rely on whatever the builder say. But the sad part is that even after knowing that the builder has cheated we do not want to fight.

We are ready to get in an argument with a rickshaw wala for charging us extra or for change.

We will not tolerate if the sabji – wala gives one tomato less.

But we will tolerate if the builders cheat by not giving what they promise. We are victimized because we feel that we have become prisoners of the developers.

Why because he has power, money and panel of lawyers and what do we have hungry mouths to feed, heavy baggage of home loan EMI, credits and bills to pay, demanding boss at work and a despondent spouse at home, spiced with a grumpy neighbour.. Piss off..

This is why Builders take the buyer for granted. The laws are in place, all we have to do is to take up the fight.

No one in my complex is willing to fight with the builder although their apartments has the same issues. There is a lack of motivation and collective responsibility.

“Do they have any idea what they are taking on? This isn’t an easy project.”

We must become more assertive when faced with such contentious situations.  I have begun my own quiet war (Read here).

Update: Builder Mafia Raaj Hatao
http://ravikarandeekarsblog.blogspot.in/2016/05/pune-flat-buyers-declare-war-on-builder-mafia-raaj.html?m=1

"Alas, I have begun my loneliest walk. But whoever is of my kind, cannot escape such an hour, the hour which says to him, 'Only now are you going your way to greatness. Peak and abyss, they are now joined together, for all things are baptized in a well of eternity, and lie beyond good and evil.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche