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Thursday, June 19, 2008

What can we learn from the 'open fight at Nyati Enclave between builder, residents and Pune Municipal Corporation'

Pune Mirror - Wakes you up!:

Aditya Dev has written a story on the front page of Pune Mirror, Wednesday June 18,2008, about the fight between the Defense officers who bought flats in Nyati Enclave at Mohammedwadi, builder of the project Nitin Nyati of Nyati Group and Pune Municipal Corporation. We can learn very important lessons from this story.

1) Actual execution of the project may not be exactly as per the conceptual presentation:

Aditya says 'defense officers feel cheated of their hard earned investment'. The reason is - "the rosy picture painted by marketing agents about the project is nowhere close to reality."

What we can learn from this is - we have to keep in mind that there may be some difference in the conceptual presentation we see at the time of the booking and the actual development. Builders inform us about this possibility in the brochure of the project. I am sure, you must have seen the note printed on the brochure. Generally, it reads like this:
The contents of this brochure are purely conceptual and have no legal binding on us. The developers reserve the right to amend the layout, number of floors, number of flats, elevation, colour scheme, specifications and amenities.
Generally, this note is printed on the last page or on the second last page of the brochure. On the website, you will find 'disclaimer'. If the website is well designed, a link to disclaimer page is given on the home page. Please read the disclaimers of Kumar Properties' Megapolis and City Group's Amanora Park Town.

Land, drinking water and road:

According to Aditya, residents of Nyati Enclave, 300 families of defense officers, are fighting since 2 years for the 3 reasons,
1) Huge chunk of open space doesn't exist in reality
2) No approach road
3) Terrible water supply
We all know that these are the fundamental issues. We have to deal with these issues in any real estate project in and around Pune. We can say, less in some projects which are in Pune than the projects which are around Pune. That's why people are happy to pay Rs. 6,000 per sq.ft. for the project in my neighborhood on Paud road in Kothrud, in Pethkar Project's Samrajya - Balwantpuram!

However, good news is, you can deal with these issues. But first, you have to accept that you are buying a concept. There are possibilities of changes while executing that concept. Our experience tells us that when we become aware about any possible danger, we start finding ways to deal with it and mostly we are successful.

Conversation and subscription:

We are not finding ways to get the same size of the layout, ample water supply and the proper approach road but we are fighting for safe, happy and prosperous life for our family.

In this fight, subscribing and taking part in the conversation by posting comments on Ravi Karandeekar's Pune Real Estate Market News Blog, forwarding this post to your 10 friends and following me on Twitter may prove useful to you.

Because, i am not blogging to sell the flats. I am blogging to assist you to have less complicated and more simple family life. That's why, we will talk about other lessons we could learn form Nyati Enclave incident in the next posts.

Related Stories:

1) Fool who purchased flat in pune..(!)

2) How to differentiate between a good builder from the bad?

3) Be a smart property buyer.. ask your builder for the CIDC-CQRA Certificate before booking a flat

11 comments:

  1. That's a biased analysis - clearly taking builder's side. Where is the line between concept and reality? The price of a flat is determined based on these 'concepts' - if builder is not able to 'realize' it - he should also give back the money he charged in the first place - that would be fair. What we need are criminal courts where such builders can be tried for cheating and their licneses revoked. Don't take their side - that's clearly anti buyer and smells of vested interests.

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  2. Hello Ravi

    I am regular visitor of yr blog...first time I am having feeling that u r giving biased opinion on builder's side....
    We can understand that builder is also a human being and he cannot fulfill all promises.......then he must be ready to compensate for that.....He can provide water on no loss no proft basis....Constructing the road is not a big deal for him as he has earned a big profit there...

    So it all is builder's fault...It is very good initiative that peoples r cming together against builder's.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. @diwakar, thanks for the comment. 1)That's a biased analysis - clearly taking builder's side. I am talking about what flat buyer should do. 2) Where is the line between concept and reality? Agreement! Agreement is the legal document. Point is do not take brochure seriously. 3) What we need are criminal courts where such builders can be tried for cheating and their licenses revoked. We have criminal and consumer courts. To become a builder you do not need a license. People go to courts. Dear Diwakar, you are talking about builders. I am talking about flat buyers. Topic is not how to teach a lesson to a builder. Topic is what lesson flat buyer can learn.

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  4. @ mandar, thanks for the comment. 1) biased opinion on builder's side....2) So it all is builder's fault... please, read my replay to diwakar's comment. I am not talking about what builder should and should not do. I am talking about what flat buyer should do. Because i am not saying what builder should do, i can understand, i sound like taking builder's side. 3) We can understand that builder is also a human being and he cannot fulfill all promises...... Point is presentation of the concept in the brochure or on the website is not a promise. It's not a legal document. It is a wish. It's imagination.

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  5. Topic is not how to teach a lesson to a builder. Topic is what lesson flat buyer can learn.
    Dear Ravi,
    How many lessons we buyers should learn? And there is nothing to learn and improve for the builders? Its diff matter, there is no one to teach lessons like you teach us to buyers? Time to wake up buyres!! I completely agree with Diwakar, we pay for what is seen and promised!! This is certainly a trial case and probably court will teach a lesson to builders if NOT a gentleman like Ravi Karandeekar. Time to make public awareness on what can be changed in so called imagination (colorful concepts) and make it clearly visible to potential buyers like -

    - Statutory warning have norms on tobacco products.
    - Mutual fund risk message has mandatory time for which it should be played.

    There are all amendments in public interests which these companies would never have implemented otherwise. Time to have same amendment in this matter.

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  6. So called note on brochures – which to be frank I heard today and shocked with the interpretation by builders.
    the contents of this brochure are purely conceptual and have no legal binding on us. The developers reserve the right to amend the layout, number of floors, number of flats, elevation, color scheme, specifications and amenities.

    It is OK to change colors, layout (provided the area measured are is same), road directions etc. But...

    - Does this mean reducing the total area promised?
    - Does this mean not providing adequate water supply?
    - Does this mean not providing adequate road to society?

    If it is, then who (courts, gov body, politicians, or someone else?) legally allowed to interpret the message this way?

    The most unfortunate thing about real estate is – there is no governing body like SEBI and even govt don’t want to for pretty obvious reasons

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  7. As far as I know (and I've bought 5 properties so far) - Agreements do not include common amenities and access roads etc - they only include what you will own and paying for directly - correct me if I am wrong. I live in US now - same incidence here would result in builder going out of business and most likely imprisoned because there are systems which force accountability here - we have such systems in India but probably only on paper - thats why builders get away with all this. This is clearly Cheating on builder's part - you don't realize half way thru the project that OMG - there is no access road or there is no open space left ! Builder knew this before hand or changed his mind to build more flats and make more money - imagine the plight of a buyer who put in a life long commitment to buy from him! But you are right - knowing it is what it is - buyer must only buy from very reupted and trustworthy builders (magarpatta, zircon etc) - I would rather pay a premium to them for the trust then get a bargain from other builders ! A good lesson learnt here.

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  8. @diwakar, thanks for the comment. You are spot on: 1) Agreements do not include common amenities and access roads etc - they only include what you will own and paying for directly 2) accountability 3) buyer must only buy from very reputed and trustworthy builders. You have said it all!

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  9. @anil, thanks for the comment! The most unfortunate thing about real estate is – there is no governing body like SEBI I strongly believe that consumers / property buyers is the only effective governing body. Because business is for profit. More than right or wrong / ethical or unethical any business cares for the profit or loss.

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  10. Ravi,
    I am enjoying your blog for quite a few months. I am wondering why buyers can't come together & form a co-op housing society beforehand to do project themselves. I know my one uncle used to do this some 10 years back in Pune. This way buyer required to pay only for cost of project & not for profit as co-op society don't need profit to finance next project. Though this is one way to put cost pressure on builders to offer prices at resonable level (price = cost + resonable profit)I am not heard any thing like this happening now in Pune. Can you write about what are the practical problems in this solution or otherwise any recent examples happening in Pune. If this is really is happening in Pune then I want to do this kind of project in Pune.
    Sandip

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  11. I am wondering why buyers can't come together & form a co-op housing society beforehand to do project themselves. Thanks, for the complement and the comment! Yes, people are coming together, forming groups. From 25 to 200 members. But most of them find it difficult to get the land at a good location at a reasonable price. Most of the land with clear title is gone. To convert Agricultural land to residential minimum 100 acre is a must. Which is too much for any group. Even some small builders have taken an initiative to manage and construct. Because even small builders find it difficult to get a plot - 10 - 20,000 sq.ft. Rate is second issue. 1 acre of agricultural land is going for 1.5 to 2 crore. Small plots in Baner Balewadi 1,500 - 2,000 sq.ft.!

    ReplyDelete