Year: 2007 Month: January. Just after Pongal... Birth of the auspicious month of “Thai”... Having spent 8.5 years in Indian IT industry, what am I still waiting for? The desire to own a house did not occur to me till then. Married for 6 months, the family man in me started thinking of booking a flat. To be honest – the desire to own a house had just born – not taken a detailed imagination. I could not wait till the desire could grow stronger and grow into a detailed plan – reason: the flat rates were increased by 200 Rs/sq. ft. every couple of months by the builders. Delaying by a month or 2 would mean that you have to shell out another couple of lakhs more... Even when my friends alerted that Jain housing have a history of delaying completion of projects, ( never did anybody mention about the very poor quality may be Jains were n't that bad then ) I still went for Jains. I booked a flat in Jains Sudarsana by paying an advance of Rs. 50, 000/-
Within a weeks time I handed over the cheque for Rs. 2.75 lakhs which in addition to 50K advance made up the initial 10% amount. I do not really remember how I got HDFC loan representative's number – but once I called him up – he came to my office and did all the formalities – loan of 29.25 lakhs was approved and a cheque of Rs. 9.75 lakhs was given to me – this was towards 30% payment which was to be paid within 30 days of booking. Hence like most other people who book flats yet to be constructed, I too paid 40% of the total agreed price for the flat even before a single brick was placed on the ground (may be Bhoomi Pooja was done – I mean any real construction was yet to start).
During this time, I happened to meet the gentleman who runs Ruby Builders. I came to know of their proposed flats construction at Camp road junction in East Tambaram. This superior quality construction was going at Rs. 200 per sq ft less than the Jains Sudarsnan rates although it was in a much more prime location. Just like the common belief goes – I thought the Jains premium price would be justifiable in the quality of construction . Only by this time I had already gone for Jains. The fact that me and my wife preferred to have children's play area and swimming pool etc as amenities in the apartment we had no regrets then.
Year: 2007 Month: July. The foundation construction was done and another 10% (about 3.5 lakks including service tax) was paid.
Year: 2007 Month: Aug. First floor structure was raised and another 10% (about 3.5 lakks including service tax) was paid.
Year: 2007 Month: Sep. Second floor structure was raised and another 10 % (about 3.5 lakks including service tax) was paid.
Year: 2007 Month: Oct. Third floor structure was raised and another 10% (about 3.25 lakhs – by this time some controversy over service tax was raised) was paid.
Year: 2008 Month: April. Fourth floor structure was raised and another 10% (about 3.25 lakhs) were paid
By this time, 90% of the total agreed price for the undivided share of land and flat construction was paid. Now all of a sudden there was no activity in the construction site, we were told there was labour crises – not sure how on earth the crisis came up only after 90% of the agreed amount was fleezed from the customers.
Year: 2010 Month: Febuary. The flat was completed and ready for handover as per Jain Housing's prevailing pathetic standards.
Year: 2010 Month: March. I inspected the flat for handover. By this time knowing Jain Housing's quality that they have delivered to other helpless peopel like me in the apartment, had prepared my heart to accept the worst possible uneven tiles, many broken tiles on the floor and the walls especially bath rooms. switchboards were not finished properly - some were protruding, some gone inside, some tilted to teh right or left.
Year: 2010 Month: April: I took possession of my flat. No compensation was paid by the builder for the delays. In fact Jains had their interest calculation going tight on number days basis for each schedule of payment.
Jain Housing were only good at interest calculation, not in construction, no timely delivery, no compensation for delay,
Useful tips for buyers of flats under construction/ before construction:
go for the builder who has a good track record for the past 3 years
If you like the default design only then choose - for example, if you want a bath tub in your flat - you should only choose a builder who providesBath tub as a standard feature. If the builder says he can provide tub as an additional modification then the property may not possibly match your expectation.
Thumb rule: if all your expectations are provided as a standard feature in the property, then it will stand a chance to meet your expectations
- even if you don't intend to live in the property (only planning to rent out - as an investment opportunity for the banks are ready to loan and you get some tax advantage) still it makes sense to do a decent bit of due deligence before you choose the builder. Jain Housing has made few hundreds of families who booked their flats in Jains Sudarsana regret for choosing Jains.
Regards,
Boopathy
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.
