The Brave Pedestrian

All the Laws & Rules mentioned in this article can be downloaded here:  http://tinyurl.com/Real-Estate-Laws-Rules-etc   18 July 2011: Lakhs of redeveloped apartments have been completed in the last 15 years, and millions of people are living in new houses with shiny new flooring and fancy bathroom fixtures. So it is widely felt that all the stakeholders are satisfied, and therefore, it is reactionary to argue against redevelopment.  Is this true? Is the Indian public really satisfied? There are the untold stories of lakhs of victims in the story of India Shining – but who wants to listen? The victims of hundreds of unethical redevelopment projects are stranded without viable legal remedies. There is much anger in flat owners – both before and after redevelopment. But their housing societies, the government, courts of law and the influential building industry are stifling their cries.  Building redevelopment is a market-driven frenzy fuelled by greed and ignoran...

Mumbai, 17th December, 2013: Construction activity in Mumbai Region is seizing up.  Due to recent changes in laws and market realities, builders are finding it difficult to get permissions, to sell completed projects and to pay back financiers. After decades of giving false promises to the administration and luring the  aam aadmi  with brochures that show heavenly buildings, it appears that the builders have themselves fallen prey to rosy market projections. Until recently, middle class Indians and non-resident Indians (NRIs) believed that investing in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane was a sure-shot way of getting four- or five-fold appreciation every ten years. But now they are forced to ask whether the ceiling has been reached. The proverbial last nail in this coffin is the announcement of the Central Real Estate Regulatory Act, which may prevent builders from raising cheap finance from high-risk-appetite investors. On the one hand, full-page ads are claiming t...

13th March 2014: Owners of older flats in metros like Mumbai take note: redevelopers are exploiting you. Even before your society signs the redevelopment agreement, you lose control over your flat – the precious asset of your family that fetches one or two crore rupees in metros like Mumbai. Builders, with your office-bearers’ support, make it impossible for you to sell your flat for several years. (Sometimes, you can sell but at a severe loss; you will be forced to settle your family in a poorer neighbourhood or a smaller flat.) Until they give vacant possession of their flat, flat-owners often get no money from the builder. This is because they don’t know their own rights! What flat-owners must remember is that financial control of their home is a separate asset, which can be used for mobilizing funds by mortgaging to any lender. When the society enters into the redevelopment process and selects a builder, the flat-owner loses the power to mortgage his flat to a lender. Usually, ...