Are you being charged Rs 1 lakh as ‘miscellaneous charges’ by your builder?

Ask any property buyer …whether his builder or developer is a cheat? More than 90 per cent will give an affirmative reply and rest 10 per cent will either not reply or will say 'no' . The latter category is in some way close to the builder lobby - either a friend or a relative or a business partner.

When developers sell property they speak so nicely that you feel if you miss the offered opportunity you would lose it for ever. But once you pay the booking amount you start feeling hooked and regrets begin to creep in. Yes, the grill starts right after paying the first amount to the builder directly or through the broker.

What you were promised during the booking time is, at times, not even found in the allotment letter. Either the promised facilities are altered or some more money is asked for the added services or under miscellaneous charges at the time of possession.

READ:

1) penalty clause in the allotment letter:

The most amazing part in the allotment letter is the penalty clause in case of delay in possession. They pay you Rs 5 or 6 per square feet per month, which means hardly three per cent of penalty payment per year, while people pay home loan interest of 10 per cent per year.

But even this doesn't quench their greed for money. More than 95 per cent builders find loopholes to escape paying penalty with flimsy reasons like - the hold up was owing to the laxity by the government as officials had not signed the environment clearance papers in time or did not provide much needed electricity in time.

Yes, it's been a long time that consumers have been duped by unscrupulous builders and brokers. But when their eyes open, it's too late for them as they had invested their life in the property by then. They feel scared to approach court because that also requires money along with innumerable rounds to the court.

 2) Miscellaneous charges before possession

Surprisingly, the cases that are being heard on and off, have invested or bought flats in the projects of reputed builders.

"Name any big or small developer, you will find many consumers complaining against them. All are cheats. The established ones have big lawyers associated with them so they always have their cases strong. And a consumer or a flat buyer is not so strong to fight on his own unless people group up to wrestle," said Sanjeev Bhatnagar, a merchant navy employee, who owns a flat in Indirapuram.

Bhatnagar was asked to pay Rs 70,000 billed as 'ward and watch charges'as he couldn't take possession in time. Whereas Deepti has another story to tell. She also owns a flat in a fully air conditioned society in Indirapuram. According to her, "the builder asked for Rs 70,000 as miscellaneous charges during the time of possession and also took maintenance of one year in advance though the project was not completed. This was in April 2010. Even today, the society park and the parking area are not yet fully complete . The builder also asked us to pay Rs 7,000 per month if we don't take possession in time, though flat was not even ready so that we could shift our possessions and start living in it."

3) Buyers should understand project clauses clearly

Stories are unending. One of the buyers named Manoj Kumar, was promised free car parking at the time of booking a flat in Noida Extention by a well-known builder. But to his surprise the allotment letter said: 'free of cost (FOC) scooter parking.

"Fortunately , we read that while signing our agreement papers and approached one of the directors of the company for the requisite changes to be made in the agreement papers. First he refused to change, but after a lot of argument he had to make changes as we thankfully carried the brochure, which mentioned FOC car parking" , said Manoj.

Another lady Savita said her builder charged her Rs 1 lakh more for changing the tiles, which earlier were costing Rs 15,000 only. "All the developers are thieves. They can go to any extent for money" , she added.

Buyers should be smart enough to read and understand the project clauses clearly. Though you cannot change the smartly drafted clauses, yet you would be ready for the much expected fight with them. Better would be to know more people who are buying property in the same society or nearby .

4) Heavy interest chared by builders

Another problem that is most commonly noticed is the heavy interest that builders charge if the down payment is not being paid by the bank in time. "We were asked to pay Rs 32,000 more at the time of possession as our bank had approved the loan a week later than expected and subsequently, the payment was made late to the builder under the down payment scheme.

The developer never mentioned the 30-day period to us for sanction of the loan and the payment to be made to them, which had started right from the booking date, that is, when we had given the first booking amount to the builder. Later, to our surprise , it was mentioned in their leaflet at the last, in small font size" , said Sangeeta Sagar, a resident of a society in Indirapuram.

In India, we don't have any system or forum to discuss such issues; there is no grievance cell to hear problems concerning real estate problems.

But forming groups on Internet can be of major help here. Group buying can also prove to be beneficial, for a builder will think at least 10 times to dupe a big group of people.