One of my wife wish is to hang a giant Chandelier and though I'm vertically challenged but I can't guarantee that all my guests will be of my height. Those who do stretching exercise either don't raise your hand or don't buy ceiling fan. Make sure that you buy powerful exhaust or live with poor ventilation through out your life.
Consumer forum has fined Brigade for deviating from the approved plan. In Brigade Retreat, Mysore apartment Brigade reduced the ceiling height from approved 2.85 m to 2.65 m. This violated the minimum requirement of 2.75 m as the minimum ceiling height.
I salute to those people who come out of comfort zone to fight for their rights, who fight for the substandard product delivered by the company. Jago Grahak Jago!!
Lessons learned from this incident
- Never register an apartment till the apartment is completely ready.
- After possession, Go through the specifications and do a full inspection.
- If cheated voice your concern at appropriate forum.
In high rise apartment even reducing the floor height by few inches or even half foot/floor brings huge saving in terms of reduced material cost. One must reduce the cost of whatever product you are developing but this is greed when you are keeping your customers in the cage. The apartment construction has been delayed by 1.5+ yr and if there was proper project management in placed and the apartment was delivered on time. This itself would had brought huge savings to Brigade.
Business Opportunity
This incident also highlights business opportunities for Civil Architect companies , Building Audit companies and Property Management Companies.
Most of the people in luxury apartments are NRI or are very busy to get themselves involved in thorough inspection of their apartment. Even if owners are willing to they don't have knowledge and right tool to do the possession audit and find out what was the planned & agreed specifications and what is finally delivered by the builder? If your company does a possession audit then please feel free to leave your company details & service fees in comments section. There are 1000's of owners who are looking for your expertise to do the possession audit for their apartment.
Recommendations
- If you are an owner of an apartment or a house and you are looking forward to the possession of your apartment then don't just blindly trust your builder just because it's big name in the market.
- Go through the planned and approved technical specification and do a full audit on what has been delivered. If you don't have the expertise & time then take the professional help.
You must check following items during the possession of your apartment. Lot of these features depends on what was agreed by the builder.
- What type of wood has been provided on doors? Does it have locks & keys? Does the keys work? Are you able to open & close doors smoothly? Does the doors have magic eye?
- Does the electrical boards have Light points, Sockets, Fan points, Telephone points, Television points, Call bell point, AC point, Geyser points etc?
- What type of tiles & flooring has been provided? Are they tightly coupled? Is there any broken tiles?
- What type of painting is on the wall? Is there any marks?
- Does the Balcony & Window doors slides? Does it have mosquito shutter? Does it have a provision for rain water outlet?
- Does the apartment have fire sprinklers? Does it works? How it is triggered? How it is switched off just in case there is false alarm?
- Does the bathroom have washbasin, showers, bath tub, towel rod, toilet paper holder, soap tray, towel ring etc? Is it of same company as per the agreement? Does the water flows smoothly? Is there a leakage?
- Does the kitchen have sink? Does it have hot & cold water taps? Does the water flows smoothly? Is there a leakage? Does it have granite? Is it in good condition?
9. Measure the dimensions of your rooms
10. Measure the floor to ceiling height - You never know what surprises are stored for you.
Read below Brigade Retreat news in Hindu
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The National Consumer Commission recently upheld an order of the Mysore District Consumer Forum asking Brigade Developers Private Ltd. to pay damages for “substandard construction” of an apartment building.
P.M. Bhat, who had bought a flat in “Brigade Retreat”, constructed by Brigade Developers, on Adi Pampa Road, had complained that the approved plan for the building showed that height of the ceiling from the floor as 2.85 m, but the actual height was only 2.65 m.
“This violated not only the approved plan but also the National Building Code of India, 1970, which mandated 2.75 m as the minimum ceiling height,” said a press release from Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP).
The forum agreed that this was a deficiency in service and ordered Brigade Developers to pay the complainant Rs. 25,000 to meet the financial loss suffered by him.
The forum awarded an additional Rs. 75,000 compensation to the complainant noting that “...the complainant and his family members are forced to reside in such building for their entire life with lesser ventilation,” S.K. Ananda Thirtha of the MGP said in the release.
The builder filed an appeal before the Karnataka State Consumer Commission arguing that Mr. Bhat had signed a declaration at the time of taking possession of the flat stating that he had conducted a detailed inspection of the flat and was satisfied with the construction and had no claims against the builder.
The commission said that the question whether the signature was obtained by force or not could only be decided in a civil court and set aside the order of the district forum.
Mr. Bhat filed an appeal before the national commission, which observed that the purchaser of the flat was under duress to sign the declaration because, otherwise he was not given the flat.
The release said the national commission also noted that in the case of another flat in the same building, the ceiling height was as low as 2.31 m and the Mysore City Corporation had issued the builder a legal notice for this violation.
“When Brigade Developers issued a press statement saying there were no violation in the building and that MCC had closed the matter, N. Jayaram, the then Commissioner of the corporation, issued a counter press release stating that the builder had violated the law and that the corporation had not closed the matter,” the release stated.
The national commission said that this press statement of MCC weakened the case of the builder, overturned the decision of the State commission and confirmed the order of the district forum.
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Next Step
- Share this blog link and inform your friends and relatives on the possession checklist.
- If you have apartment possession stories to share then please leave a comment. Readers of this blog will learn from your experience.
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Such builders should be penalized to set an example for others.
ReplyDeleteIn India construction industry is unregulated. Like telecom industry has TRAI, insurance sector has IRDA, there is a need to have a regulator for construction industry as well!!
Brigade has been asked to pay compensation of 75000 Rs. This Penalty is like taking a drop taking out of ocean. Had it been US, law suits would had given sleepless night to Jaishankar.
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