Prepayment Penalty is a nightmare that is suffered by the individual borrowers who take home loans for buying apartments. A prepayment loan generally means that all debts have to be paid before the due date. Prepayment penalty usually ranges between 1% or 5% on the total loan taken depending on the bank.

The NHB (National Housing Bank) sent out a notice to all the HFCs (Housing Finance Company) recently to levy any prepayment charges. This decision has been greatly applauded by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India). The ban is not only levied on the prepayment of the floating rate home loans but also the borrowers of the fixed rate home loan schemes

However, if you have taken a Prepayment Loan you just need to follow a few simple rules. Here’s a look at them

Rule #1 Negotiation With Your Bank

Before transferring your home loan, do let your bank know regarding why you have planned to pay your loan beforehand. If the EMI on your home loan is unaffordable to you or the interest rate is sky high, then the bank might grant you certain options like extension in tenure, partial repayment or a relaxation in the home loan EMI.

Rule #2 Switching to a Floating Rate Scheme From a Fixed rate Loan

Some of the borrowers let you choose a floating scheme of payment if you are finding a difficulty in paying your home loan. The floating loan scheme comes 1 or 2 percent cheaper than the fixed rate loan scheme.

Rule #3 Partial Prepayment

If the pre-play is taking a toll on your budget and the interest rate is too high for you to pay up; talking to the bank is always an option. The bank can allow you to make partial prepayments and lower the principal amount; they can also reduce the outstanding loan amount. Many banks have the option of a partial prepayment of the loan, which does not exceed 25% of the total loan amount.

Rule #4 Prepayment of the Home Loan from Your Source

In case you decide to go for a full loan prepayment or opt for a foreclosure with own funds, no penalty amount will be levied on you. These funds can be a maturity of bonuses from sale of assets and employment or life policies.

Home Loan is a major source of fund when you buy a property. The Home Loan EMI or the interest rate varies from one bank to another. Hence, it is very necessary to plan and choose an interest rate or an EMI or a home loan prepayment.

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This article aims at collating and providing information for benefit of ApnaComplex customers and blog readers. While ApnaComplex has taken every care to ensure the information is accurate, we suggest to please use it only as a guidance for further discussion and action with help of relevant professionals.

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Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!

ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trail as well so that you can try before you buy!

We have released an enhancement to Accounting in ApnaComplex. Most societies have a need to ensure that accounts are not “modified” unintentionally (or intentionally) once the accounts are audited and approved by the general body.

To meet this need, your favorite software now supports “freezing” (or closing) of accounts for a given accounting period. Go to Accounting->Accounting Periods and click the “Close Accounting Period” which will lock all transactions of that period. No one (even community admins) will be able to make any changes to the transactions once the accounting period is closed. You have to make a special request to Support team to “unfreeze” an accounting period.

This provides an inherent safety net ensuring no changes to the accounts once they are approved in AGM by the general body.

ApnaComplex now provides a view into the audit logs that are maintained in the software automatically. Administrators can now see the list of expenses and non-member income entries that were deleted along with the time stamp of deletion and details of the user who deleted them. Makes it easy to investigate any “missing” transactions. Go to Expense Statements and Non-Member Income Statements to see this in action.

Never face an issue of “I remember entering that expense last time, wonder who deleted it now” – which happens in most desktop based accounting software.

Time for another cool feature in your favorite software! Apna Treasurers can now automate the invoice posting to members. Treasurers can now setup charges to be raised on members at a frequency once and provide a date range. The system will automatically raise the invoice based on the frequency. No need for treasurers to remember and raise invoices manually. Just set up the Recurring Invoices and let the system take over. Saves even more time for treasurers. Go to Income->Member Income->Setup Recurring Invoices and get peace of mind!

Who ever said treasurers are overloaded? Refer them ApnaComplex!

The managing committee in every housing society is responsible for maintaining and managing the infrastructure. There is a steady stream of revenue that the management committee gets every month, as and when all residents in the apartment complex pay their maintenance dues.
There are other ways through which a managing committee can earn some steady revenue, so that it can build new structures and improve the existing infrastructure without cutting a hole through the pockets of all residents.

Interestingly, an apartment association can mimic a government’s functioning and use penalties as a form of revenue, to ensure that its internal processes are carried out in an unaffected manner.

Why Use Penalties As A Source Of Revenue?

Using penalties as a source of revenue can aid an association in two ways.

• Creating Order: It will help in tightening up the existing system and making the residents more responsible and punctual when it comes to paying their dues. A system where no action is taken on defaulters will only invite more lethargy and bring in complacence. A managing committee can create a set process in this way, bringing in more control and transparency to its administration.
• Tapping Into A Revenue Source: It will act as a source of money, and in this way new structures that are essential for every housing society like Rain Water Harvesting structures (including pits, dug wells, hand pumps, trenches, and recharge wells) can be constructed straight from the apartment association’s funds without collecting money from the residents. As long as this system is made transparent, there will be no issues whatsoever. Members of the managing committee should maintain records for all penalties collected and how and where the money has been put to use.

Wondering how to easily keep track of the penalties and payments against them?
More often that not, the reason for not imposing penalties in a housing society is the administration hassle associated with imposing them and ensuring a collection of the same. Its a nightmare to keep track of these without help of proper tools.


ApnaComplex’s powerful accounting features come in handy here. Treasurers can easily post the penalty charges to a member’s account and the member clearly would be aware of the penalty charge s/he has to pay. Treasurers can easily track the payment against the penalty. Most importantly, this brings about a transparent way of dealing with situations leading to penalty. What’s more – ApnaComplex being a complete accounting solution – the penalties collected can be categorized under any number of different heads of your choice – such late payment penalties, or common area penalties etc. and all of them would get reflected in your balance sheet and income/expense statement that every member can clearly understand. Absolutely, more transparency.

Yet another instance where using ApnaComplex not only saves effort, but also improves orderliness and even generates revenue for your society. Sign up your society today and get the benefits.

Where Can Penalties Be Charged?

Every housing society has its own set of bye laws, and these bye laws will provide information about the many penalties that can be levied on defaulters. The members of the managing committee can charge some penalties for the following acts:

• Violation of Bye-Laws – Most association bye-laws has rules on how balconies must be kept clutter free not spoiling the facade of the apartment complex, how to manage garbage, how to maintain sound levels etc. Still, there could be Residents/Owners who violate terms by having messy balconies, cause inconvenience to neighbors with loud music or wood work during nights etc. and association can consider imposing penalty charges for the same.
• Damage To Common Areas – The managing committee in a housing society can fine people for damaging important structures in the apartment’s common areas. A person who causes any form of damage to elevators, benches, roads, staircases, or swimming pools in the housing society can be fined. Penalties can also be charged for damages caused to gym equipments or library assets.
• Raising Pets – Though, not exactly a penalty, this is one major source of revenue that an association can tap into. Not all housing societies have bye laws that allow people to raise pets; so members of the managing committee can charge people who have pets in their household (if pets aren’t allowed). A pet deposit can be taken or pet rent can also be levied every month to create a steady source of revenue.
• Late Payment Of Dues – This is the most obvious and frequently used – Residents in the housing society who don’t pay their maintenance charges within the stipulated time can be penalized, and for this, a deadline should first be set and made public. This will help in making the collection process more effective.

But remember, before imposing any penalties, all the associated rules and the penalty amounts must be proposed, discussed, and voted in an AGM. Association cannot impose penalties with out first getting them approved in an AGM and recording those minutes.

ApnaComplex is a complete Apartment Accounting Software. Period.

When we talk about Accounting for Apartment Associations or Housing Societies, its not just about ability to create maintenance charges, automate few manual steps such as penalty generation and defaulters notifications, issue receipts or even about entering bills and expenses – there’s more to become a “complete” end-to-end solution for Accounting.

If you are a treasurer, ask these questions yourself when considering an accounting software for your society:

- Should I still download data in excel or some other form to share it with my auditor when I use this software to track my maintenance charges and expenses?

- Should I/auditor upload/re-enter data into another accounting software (such as Tally) to be able to generate Balance Sheets and Profit/Loss Statements?

If the answer to either of the above questions is “Yes”, you deserve better software as you are just duplicating efforts (and money) and not using better options that are available at lesser cost.

If the answer is “No”, ask few more questions – this time from an auditor perspective

- Can the auditor define as many ledger accounts as deemed necessary under Assets, Liabilities, Revenues and Expenses (also referred as ability to define Chart of Accounts)?

- Can the auditor change the transactions already posted? For example, can a Purchase that was captured under Expenses be moved to Assets with out re-entering all data?

- Can the Auditor View Trial Balance of all ledgers and individual Statements of all Ledger Accounts?

- Can the Auditor print the entire set of ledgers along with detailed transaction statements?

- Can the Auditor Generate unadjusted Balance Sheets, do Adjustments and then generate a final balance sheet and print it?

There can be many more such questions to be asked – but you get the idea. If the answers to any of these questions is “No”, drop that software as these are critical aspects to be able to provide a “complete” accounting.

Needless to say, with ApnaComplex you can do all the above and much more. You can create an account for your auditor, give access to the auditor only to the necessary financial data (speaks volumes about our Role Based Access Capability and the seriousness we take data protection aspects, doesn’t it?) and entire accounting can be done including generation and printing of all financial statements right from ApnaComplex. Auditor can create ledger accounts or accounting heads, re-group transactions, do adjustments, update opening balances, view trial balances, print individual ledger account statements and lastly generate Balance Sheet and Income/Expenditure Statements.

Oh, by the way, we also support exporting of data just in case you still want to use other accounting software for your needs. More options in your hands.

Now, get rid of the need to exporting and importing all the data, and most importantly – switch to ApnaComplex, Save Money and have Peace of Mind.

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ApnaComplex is a web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits!

It can be quite irritating if things don’t go the way you want them to, when you finally work towards buying an apartment. The sessions spent trying to decide on the perfect location for your apartment, the countless options that you filtered through and the many sleepless nights can all come crashing down when your application for a home loan gets rejected.

The Latest Banking Scene

All leading banks have now starting rejecting home loan applications, mainly because the situation has recently changed. Earlier, the competition among banks was high and in a spree to dish out the maximum number of loans, all banks used to sell teaser loans in an aggressive manner. But the guidelines have been made stricter and the screws have tightened in the process, and if your application doesn’t satisfy all the necessary criteria, it may get rejected.

The Reason Behind Loan Rejection

To make sure that your application doesn’t get rejected, you should know all the norms involved in the process that can stop the scales from tilting in your favor. There are three phases of approval involved when it comes to home loans, and these are:

• Personal Profile Verification – You should take care when you fill up your personal profile, because any incorrect information entered in this section can bring down your chances of getting a bank loan for buying your apartment in Hyderabad. Banks will generally verify every detail mentioned, so ensure that you fill in the correct details when it comes to your age, the total number of dependents and your financial stability. You may have to show around five or six of your pay slips to get approved and clear this particular section.
• Credit History Verification – Your credit history will also be verified when you apply for a home loan for buying an apartment in Hyderabad. Ensure that you pay all your bills in a correct manner, without lagging behind in any payments. A credit card balance that is huge doesn’t help either. Make sure that you don’t have other outstanding debts like vehicle loans or other personal loans, as these may be cited as reasons for your application’s rejection.
• Property Verification – Choose the right builder so that you don’t face any problems when it comes to verifying your property. The builder should have all the necessary documents and the required number of approvals for this phase to clear smoothly. If the documents are not in order or if there’s a problem with the title or layout, your home loan application will be rejected.

When you apply for a home loan for buying an apartment in Hyderabad, ensure that your salary meets the minimum requirements. Clear all your other loans on time without any delay, and do not have any records of outstanding debts when you submit your application. You can also take some time off and step in and out of many banks to get an idea on the many types of loans provided, and you can go with the bank that best fulfills your essential preferences.

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ApnaComplex is a web based apartment management software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by brining in more transaparency and accountability in manging the complex. Sign up your complex today and get the benefits!

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This article aims at collating and providing information for benefit of ApnaComplex customers and blog readers. While ApnaComplex has taken every care to ensure the information is accurate, we suggest to please use it only as a guidance for further discussion and action with help of relevant professionals. If you need professional advise on this topic and any other property related matters, please send your request through our contact us form. You may post your questions/inputs in the Comments section below and we will try and get them answered through relevant subject matter experts.