Year 2012 Indian real estate market was on boom, everyone was talking about property price appreciation and where and with which builder they have booked a flat, why rents will become unbearable in future. It was good time, at least for me, until I decided to book a flat.
Me and my girl friend started checking projects across Bangalore and based on a friend's recommendation we booked a flat in SunCity Gloria. It was a beautiful evening. Construction workers has already stopped working so we decided to check out sample houses once more, we were happy before I fell in a pit on the construction site going towards sample houses and had minor injuries on my neck and leg, being a very superstitions person my girl friend heard this as signal from person , apparently sitting somewhere in clouds, that SunCity Gloria is a bad decision. So she tried to convince me that we should cancel the booking and by the evening she searched and found many complaints against SunCity builder. In the lights of these new evidence, I gave verdict and cancel my booking with SunCity Gloria. It was the same day so we simply cancelled our Cheque online. We were very happy whole day, talked about how good our decision is but we didn't know what is going next is even worse.
We again started searching for flats and visited DLF Maiden Heights site. DLF's flat seem genuine and in our budget. We trusted DLF brand and booked a flat. I don't know if mother nature don't like me or there were some other factors, slow down in real estate market started just after I booked this flat or maybe moment I booked this flat.
Booking my first flat was new experience for me and my girl friend, we were acting like new kid on the block and trying to understand everything. We took Home loan from Axis Bank, and calculated we can clear all the loan amount in 3 years. Being the first house with own money is always existing experience. DLF construction was going smooth and they were sending demand notes as per plan and Bank was dispersing the money. Everything was going so smooth, we thought nothing could go wrong now, but no one could imagine how bad things can go.
Just when we thought everything is going smooth, DLF stopped sending demand note, we waited for 3 months and checked with DLF. DLF told that construction has stopped because of some small dispute and will resume very soon. Because construction was going smoothly and DLF promised to deliver flat within 30 months from initial agreement, we were quite satisfied with their response. Didn't know for DLF very soon mean 8 months, construction resumed after 8 months and we again started getting demand notes and again we thought everything is fine. We got our last demand note before the final demand note and after that everything freezes. It felt as if DLF is doing this first time and as confuse as I was regarding timeline. Somehow, every time when asked about the estimated handover date, they were always planned to handover after 3 months and after 3 months they again ask for 3 more months. I was never allowed to see my flats from inside, one day DLF dropped a happy bomb and invited owners to see their flats on Saturday with restriction, I would term deliberate deny, on number of people each Saturday.So many people including me were not able to see the flat for the first time. After sitting on 90% of money for 2 years DLF finally send happy letter in my email inbox after 4 years from booking, but again it was disappointment disguised as happiness.
It was the final demand note. After checking inflated amounts in demand note, I thought they might be building replica of Taj Mehal for me. Later I found that there is no water supply for my precious Taj Mehal, no club house permissions from govt, it is just a bare flat of cement and bricks and I will be paying huge money for water every month. So my promised land has no water and no club house, DLF planning to build a clubhouse outside the society with our money and apparently, after looking at subscription charges in final demand note, for their own use.
We found there are many differences in what is promised to us and what is constructed. Cost is also inflated as if they have used gold bricks. Buyers Agreement is designed such that it exploits owners and do not give any right on anything for owners. For any questions/objection DLF points to one or another clause in the Buyers agreement. So here I am, gave all the money to DLF for the flat which I haven't seen.
And I am not alone here, all the owners of DLF Maiden heights and Westend Heights whom I have meet have similar story and are equally confused what to do.
PS: Future Actions.
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