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.

A kitchen can be easily made into an eco-friendly one by using many energy-saving equipments and appliances such as water-saving faucets, eco-friendly lighting and energy efficient windows.

Ventilation and Natural Light

You can save unnecessary wastage of electricity and save power by working closer to skylights and windows. By setting up your kitchen that way, you save a great amount of light. If your kitchen is not well ventilated and does not receive a good amount of light, then you should opt for LED or CFL bulbs. Installing an exhaust fan in the kitchen is very necessary; it fans out the entire bad odor in your kitchen and does not let the fumes stay. This in turn increases the amount of fresh air in the kitchen and removes any dampness. Using daylight controllers and energy efficient bulbs is a great way to save energy from being used.

Making use of Energy-Efficient Appliances

Energy consumption depends a lot on the appliances that are being used. Usually, new appliances always come with more efficient energy-saving technology than their previous counterparts. All modern electronic appliances use considerably very less amount of energy than the older equipments. All the Energy Star appliances use less energy and are more efficient to operate.

Cooking at a Time

Instead of cooking many times, try cooking once. Multitasking while cooking such as cutting vegetables can help you save a lot of fuel and time. Cutting of vegetables into small pieces increases the taste of the dish you are cooking and at the same time also cuts down the preparation time. The USP of cooking at a time is that you save a lot of fuel.

Choosing Cookware

Be choosy while buying your utensils; do not just go for the cheap ones as they increase you cooking time. Low quality utensils take time to heat up and hence consume huge amount of fuel or gas. Try not to use disposable products as they are made of low-quality cast iron, which affects your cooking process.

Adopting a Green Living

Keeping a separate dust bin for recyclable and non-recyclable wastes will help you do your bit for the environment too.

What You Can Organize on Republic Day

(i) Flag Hoisting: No Republic Day function is complete without the flag hoisting ceremony. The flag hoisting is normally held early in the morning. A senior citizen of the housing complex could be asked to hoist the flag. Organize a choir to sing patriotic songs and end with the national anthem.

(ii) Sports Meet: A sports meet is a good way to get better participation. Most children are eager to sign up and you can be sure that parents will come to encourage and cheer their kids. A couple of contests can also be organized for adults.  A prize distribution ceremony at the end will wrap up the function perfectly.

(iii) Honoring Heroes: Republic Day is also an occasion where heroes are honored. It is a good idea to have a small ceremony to honor those people in your housing society who have contributed time and effort for good causes. This need not be restricted to just society activities. Residents of the housing society who have worked for upliftment and empowerment of the disadvantaged in society can be given a small token of appreciation.

(iv) Fancy Dress Competition: Fancy dress competitions are regularly organized in housing societies as part of the Republic Day celebrations. You can make the competition a little more interesting by introducing a theme – for example, children can be asked to dress up as national leaders involved in our freedom struggle. Other competitions like singing competition, dance competition or coloring competitions revolving around the theme of patriotism can be organized.

(v) Residents Meet: Republic Day is also a time when residents get a chance to network and socialize with their neighbors. A residents’ meet organized on this day will ensure good participation since almost everybody takes a day off work on Republic Day. The Residents Meet can also be used to discuss and thrash out petty problems and troubles between various individuals or groups.

(vi) Cultural Programs: A cultural program in the evening is normally organized in most housing societies. Aspects of life from various regions and parts of India can be showcased during this program. This will help residents of the housing complex to understand each other’s lifestyle and will encourage brotherhood.

The country celebrates Republic Day in order to bring about a sense of identity, patriotism and unity among people. After all, a country can grow only if people have pride in themselves and their country.  The same holds true for a housing society, and a grand Republic Day celebration is a good way to encourage harmony among residents.

Things to Do at Least 6 Weeks before Moving

• Make a checklist or maintain a notebook to keep track of all the moving information at a single place.
• Plan on whether you plan on hiring a moving company or you want to move out on your own.
• If you plan on hiring a moving company, then do a well planned research on which company you plan to hire.
• If you plan on moving to a place, which is far off from the current place you are staying in, cross check whether you need any special considerations such as arranging for auto shipping.
• Make an appropriate estimate of the costs you think you would incur.
• Run a check on the lease agreement for the current apartment and get an idea of how much you would have to pay to move out.
• You have to find out if there are any formalities before moving in to the new place.
• Set up a meeting with an insurance agent and get your renter’s insurance figured out for your new apartment. Make sure you cancel all your current policies when you plan to move out.
• Prepare a list of all the people who need to be intimated and contacted before you move out. The list should ideally include doctors, creditors, friends, former employees and schools.
• Start moving smaller items into boxes.
• Give a notice to the owner of the current apartment.

Things to do 4-5 Weeks before You Move

• Make a list of all the valuable items that need special care while moving.
• Donate away items that are not needed.
• Finish off all the detergent and frozen food items before moving out.
• Transfer all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions.
• Inform your employer that you would want to take a day off for moving into a new apartment.
• If you are moving to a different state, make sure that you get your car tags and driving license updated.
• Close all the accounts that are not to be moved such as checking, savings, P.O. Boxes, safe deposit boxes, etc.

Things to do 2 to 3 Weeks before You Move

• Return any library items or other material that you have bought on rent.
• Make a meal chart that helps you make use of all the food items that is stored in your refrigerator.

The Final Week

• Confirm your meeting with cable or other Internet services.
• Confirm moving out details with the movers company that you have hired.
• Pack all the essentials that you would need immediately after moving in to the new apartment.
• A final apartment check is needed to make sure you have not left out anything.

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 trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

One of the biggest pain points for any society is to track how various consumables (such as Diesel, Electrical Fittings, Plumbing Fittings, Salt/Chemicals for Water Bodies etc.) are being utilized. Things like when was a stock bought and at what price, when and how are they consumed, what is the current balance is very difficult to track all along – but no more.

ApnaComplex has now a new “Inventory” module that would help you track inventory.  Asset Administrators will now be able to:
1. Define various stock items such as Diesel, Water, Bulbs, etc.
2. Ability to add purchase and consume transactions of every item – along with date of the transaction, the quantity and the price (for purchase transactions).
3. View Statement of each stock item for a given date range which gives an overview of how an item was purchased and used.
4. Generate month-wise consumption reports for a given date range for all stock items.

We are postive that our customers would find this module very useful. Like with all other features, this feature also will evolve based on the feedback from our customers as days pass by.

Happy and easy tracking!