If apartment buyers complain of builders not delivering on amenities promised, they are equally responsible for the mess they end up in.
For, according to real estate players, most buyers don’t show interest or ask for documents before finalising the apartment, and end up complaining only after they realise they’ve been had. “Buyers here don’t understand the value of their money,” said a real estate expert.
No professionalism
“A prime reason is absence of professionalism. Most of the times buyers don’t inspect documents as they are not interested or don’t understand. But there are also [stories] of those asking too many questions not getting a housing unit with developer [viewing them] as troublemaker,” Santosh Kumar of United Estates, a real estate consultancy firm, pointed out.
Citing a recent Supreme Court’s verdict, Mr.Kumar said that once the property is handed over to the association, the developer cedes all rights over the title of the property.
He cautioned that developers don’t give specifications of the nature of fixtures, fittings or amenities before citing probable change in the design during construction; buyers cannot question the quality or the make of these fixtures later.
Many of the international practices are also not followed here. Master community declaration documentation (MCDC) is not prepared for the project nor is a buyers’ association formed to oversee the work.
“In the West, the MCDC usually has details about the project, pricing, facilities, date of completion, future of the project area and also commitment from the developer not to invest the money collected for any project elsewhere,” Mr. Kumar said.
