It is critical for prospective property buyers to pay attention to minute details such as revised area costs, actual area offered to him and maintenance charges levied before finalising a deal

Recently, a survey was conducted by some MBA graduates on the marketing strategies of a few reputed New Delhi-based realty developers. The findings of the survey came as a rude shock, which revealed in every project built in the last 8 years the realtors asked customers to bear revised area costs, before handing over the property to the latter. Such additional cost varies for an area ranging from 25-150 square feet (sq ft) in some cases. Most people do not even question the builder and pay the said money quietly. But a simple calculation on any residential project, comprising 500 apartments with an increased area of 50 sq ft per apartment on an average, would fetch the builder Rs 100 million for total additional increased area of 25,000 sq ft in the project. This has become an alarming trend that is being followed by majority of the Indian builders at present.



While purchasing a residential apartment or an office space, the most common question that comes from a customer is - How much actual area will I get? - and toying with such a question in ambiguity is a developer’s forte. Carpet area, covered area, and super area are such ambiguous terms, which are generally used by every real estate professional to sell properties. Somewhere down the line the end-users fail to authenticate the same and take it for granted that this area is going to increase in any case at the time of possession.
 

The government, too, has recognised the term ‘super area’ without much ado. Adding fuel to the fire, are the several authorities that issue sanction plans and occupation certificates at random inspections on the ground level, or even worse in some places without even measuring it. Therefore, nobody cares about the area a customer gets as against the value of money.
 

Apart from this, the other alarming matter noted at the time of property purchase is that every owner pays steeply for common areas and facilities in the form of internal or external development charges to the builder, over and above the basic sale price. Thereafter indirectly, common areas become the property of apartment owners collectively, or of their association.
 

In reality, most builders retain these income-generating common areas and facilities to themselves and levy hefty maintenance charges to the owners, varying from Rs1.80 per sq ft to Rs 3 per sq ft.
 

Act being flouted

According to the provisions of the Haryana Apartment Ownership Act, 1983, Section 3 (g)1 and Section 19, it is the exclusive right of apartment owners through their association to fix and levy maintenance charges. It also gives them the right to earn from income-generating common areas and facilities to meet such maintenance expenses incurred. Here too, builders clearly flout the norms and try to override a said ‘declaration’, which is a must to be filed with the director of the Town and Country Planning before the sale of the first apartment in the complex, according to  Section 13 (2) and Section 13 (5) of the aforementioned act. This ‘declaration’ automatically brings the said complex under the provisions of the Haryana Apartment Ownership Act, 1983.
 

Ashwani Singh Virk, managing director of Jagson Realtors, a leading realty firm in New Delhi