Fraudster NestAway. Review on Nestaway

This all started in July 2018.

I booked a house from Zenify (Now NestAway) where rent was ₹12000 per month and with a security deposit of ₹48, 000 i.e four-month rent and one-time onboarding charge of ₹3000. Everything was running smoothly until and unless Nestaway acquired Zenify. I don’t remember exactly when it was acquired. From the caretaker of the building, I got to know it. I was not paying any extra money than the monthly rent of ₹12, 000 + Electricity bill.

Suddenly from Feb 2019, we started facing water problems in the house. On enquiring, I got to know that there is always a scarcity of water in this period since there is no rain and it is happening every year and this will run mostly til Aug 2019 or so. So the water tanker started coming and was taken care of by NestAway.

In July 2019, a top floor room got vacant so I thought of transferring myself to that since I was living on the ground floor and it was quite disturbing with the generator sound and also because of other people. Since there was an option for internal transfer I applied for it. Suddenly like shocker information, a NestAway executive called me and told that since you are a Zenify customer, it is not possible for you to opt for any internal transfer. As a solution, they told me that I need to book the new flat with a new ID, deposit the new security amount and also new onboarding charge of half month rent (Previously it was ₹3000 for all, but now it half month rent. So if your rent is high your onboarding charge will get increase). I was shocked since already a deposit of ₹48, 000 was with them and now they are asking another ₹58000. With so many fights since I was not willing to change the location, I have booked the room with a token amount of ₹3000. Remember, these all are for just to move my self from the ground floor to the 4th floor in the same building. I have deposited the new security amount along with the onboarding charge.

I came to the new room in Aug 2019, and there was not a single portion of the room where the walls were clean. All dirty walls, lights were not working, the kitchen sink was not working, etc. I complained to NestAway immediately about this. Till now (April 2020) I am living with the dirty walls and they have canceled the complaint that I have raised for wall painting. They have repaired the other things free of cost anyway. And just to let you know that they charge a sum of one month rent as painting charge once you are vacant the room. When enquiring about it, since I know the guy who was staying before me, NestAway has charged ₹9000 as painting charge from them and there was no painting done for the new people. Simply they are looting the money. Even when I will leave this flat they gonna charge me half month rent even though the room was not painted when I came to the room.

Now coming to the first drama from these fraudsters they were supposed to return me the old security deposit of ₹48, 000. I got a final bill saying they will return me ₹45, 781 since they are charging some utility charge and all ( I have the screenshots). I said okay and agreed to it and they have processed the amount. After 2-3 days an amount of ₹35, 781 was credited to my account from NestAway. I enquired for the remaining ₹10, 000 and shockingly they told me that ₹1000 is deducted as electricity bill of the previous month and ₹9000 is deducted as painting charge for the old room. On producing the electricity (Paid bill) they have refunded me the ₹1000. But still, 9K was pending and they were not ready to return me. There was an agreement with the person who came to visit my previous flat to see if everything is well in the room, no painting charges will be charged from me since the room condition was still brand new. Even I have asked them if required I will paint it and he said not required sir! NestAway was not at all agreeing to it and that guy stopped responding to my calls(Even blocked me) when I told him that this has happened to me. Luckily I have recovered everything and on producing these conversations as proof they have refunded the whole sum of money to me.

Now coming to the second phase of the drama. There was a bill of ₹3300 as a water bill of Aug month which gave a mini heart attack. I complained and they removed the bill from me saying by mistakenly it happened. After removing I saw again another bill of ₹3070 as water bill for Aug month. I complained again and they said this time this is the correct bill. I decided not to pay this since the water bill of ₹3070 with 22 flats in the building, the total amount will be ₹67, 540. Let's say everyday water tanker comes it will be around ₹1500x30 = 45, 000 assuming the cost of per tanker is ₹1500. And they have collected ₹67, 540 from the tenants. Amazing business! Then slowly every month, the water bill started getting added which was approximately between 400-500.

Secondly from the same month, another amount started getting added is the diesel bill for generator. Just to add these charges were never a part when I came to this building initially. I started paying this amount.

Thirdly, which is very recent, I got a new bill of ₹872 as a water bill (Prepaid water bill) in my dashboard. I immediately called them to know what is this prepaid water bill is all about. Here comes the most fraudulent activity from these people. Below is the message from them.

"With regards to your query, We would like to inform you that you have been charged for prepaid water tanker charges. As you know there is water scarcity in your property, we are providing water tankers on your property. Hence we are charging water tanker charges. The applied charges are supposed to be borne by tenants who are staying in the property. With regards to the amount that is being charged to you, we have supplied a water tanker to your property for the last year's summer and we know the average number of water tankers that will be supplied. as per which we have applied charges per house. For example, if your property needs 30 water takers in a month and if there are 30 houses, then per house we will be charging ₹1000 to each house when all the houses are of the same size. If the Houses are of different sizes then the charges will also differ, wherein a 2 BHK will be charged more than a 1 BHK.

With regards to the charges applied on your dashboard, Your property needs 13 water tankers monthly as per which we have charges you the said amount. The amount that has been charged is completely for the month of Apr 2020 as per Hence the charges applied to stand valid. Going forward you will be paying for water tanker on Prepaid basis. A mail communication has been sent out to all the applicable tenants regarding this to your registered email ID."

Now I will come to the point. The average water bill which was coming to me was 400-500 since scarcity was not much in my flat because sometimes pumped water also comes. Since because of this COVID-19 I am staying in my room from march, what I got to know is that till today i.e 20th April 2020, from the time I am staying in the room, no water tanker is coming for water supply since motor pumping is working fine but still I have to pay ₹872 as water bill of April even though no water tanker came in this month. Again ₹872 x 22 flats = ₹19, 184.

Now in this same month, other new charges are levied on us is a common electricity charge which is of ₹246 and if multiplying with 22 flats it will be ₹5412. Now the funniest part is after staying in the room for the whole month and working for office switching Laptop, fan etc for whole day my room electricity bill was only ₹208 and irony I am paying ₹246 as electricity bill for the common area or whatever it is and appx ₹200 as generator charge which takes my electricity bill to somewhat around ₹650-₹700. This small amount looks small but actually, these amounts cumulatively are a huge amount since there are so many properties of NestAway and I am very sure with everyone the same is happening.

To the people of Bangalore or any other city, I just want to request you that please don’t fall into the trap of NestAway. They are the cheapest people with only looting ideas. They are not at all customers' concentric. You will regret after onboarding into NestAway flats. You can save 4-5 thousand per month easily for 1bhk flats if you directly find out. Initially, they will tell you so many things, but later you will see only money matters for them. There are so many hidden charges that will be slowly getting added to you and you will have no option then to pat them since even if you have only ₹50 bill amount as the pending amount, they will charge you ₹100 fine per day as of late fine. So just think a thousand times before even coming in contact with NestAway agents. I don’t how many new types of charges are going to come forme newly but now I am sure that no more NestAway in my life. Better to find some owner by yourself and live happily. These people will make holes in your pocket and you will not even come to know that you are paying 2bhk amount for 1bhk.

So I request everyone please take your own time to find out rooms by your self. Don’t fall into the honey trap by NestAway else you will repent badly later. I am also waiting for the COVID - 19 to get over and say bye-bye to this fraudulent NestAway.