Cyberabad Police has launched a citizen-police connect program via WhatsApp. This new initiative will enable the citizens of Cyberabad to complaint or report against any crime directly via Whatsapp. The citizens can complaint via WhatsApp on this number – 9490617444.
As per this initiative all police SI and above rank officers will stay connected to the WhatsApp group and the citizens can complaint, report, suggest or update the police by sending messages, audio and video clips and images to above given number.
Once can report any crime or any complaint against women harassment, eve teasing, breaking of traffic rules, law & order etc.
For more information you can log onto www.fb.com/Heartof Hyderabad All Hyderbadis should save this number – 9490617444 for immediate use.
Do share this information with your friends/relatives in Hyderabad. This is a great initiative commenced by Cyberabad Police.
Police departments in other cities of India should plan to launch this initiative for the safety of people in their city.
Kudos to the Cyberabad Police department for coming up with this initiative!
The real estate market in Bangalore is quite vibrant. The builders are developing villas and apartments of various categories to cater all sections of the society. The built up area ranges from 650 sqft to 10,000 sqft with a price range of Rs 30 lakh to Rs 10 crore plus. There are about 5oo upcoming residential projects in Bangalore, leading to addition of around 60,000 units.
The buyers have a large range to choose from once he narrows down his budget and location. But along with an array of choices one needs to exercise a lot of caution since buying a house involves many issues and legalities that one should take care of.
Please find steps mentioned below which you need to keep in mind before buying a house in Bengaluru:
Project Selection
Verify credibility and credentials of builder, construction quality, apartment facilities and prices offered by similar apartment in your chosen area. Make a note to check about zoning clearance, parking space, water supply and litigation display board if any.
Title Clearance of Land
After identification of the project and the builder, ensure title clearance of land. Projects are left in an incomplete stage mostly due to litigations arising on the account of title issues. After paying a token advance to builder, demand for the master file that’s consists of all land documents and then independently get the `Title Search Report’ (TSR) done. You can also get a detailed encumbrance certificate (EC) from the sub registrar office (SRO).
Approval of Building Plan
BDA needs to approve all layout plans in general and all apartment projects building plans. BDA approval is mandatory even if the project is in Bengaluru outskirts ad approval by CMC or panchayat is not enough. The approvals will have A khata only (entire land and individual flats). Check if the construction is as per the approved plan as builders tend to violate Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and build extra flats without approvals. It’s prudent to check the copy of the approved plan, A khata at the BDA office, as many fabricated plans are in the market.
Construction License
BMPBDA needs to issue a proper license to the builders for constructing the property. Check for deviation violation by matching the original plan approval with the floor plan approval of the apartment. There have been instances where the approved plan shows the apartment on the first floor, whereas it is actually constructed on the second floor, which is unauthorized.
Commencement Certificate
Verify if the builder has obtained proper CC from the BBMP.
Government Clearances
Obtain copies of clearances from Bescom, BWSSB, the pollution board, and fire service besides approvals for digging bore wells from competent authorities.
Builder Loans
Find out whether the builder has got any loan. The original documents of the land would be mortgaged to the banks who will have to issue a “letter NOC” for release of the undivided share of interest (UDS) of the land constructed area. Also ensure that such mortgage transactions are registered and reflected in the encumbrance certificate (Form 15). Otherwise, there is a possibility of the builder getting multiple funding from banks which can take possession of the flats.
Regular Visits
Purchaser should visit the project site periodically to ensure that the construction is as per plan, time schedule based on the agreement, and quality fittings & fixtures are used. The purchaser should insist and ensure that the builder provides a copy of the CC issued by the BBMP. Occupancy Certificate (OC): The builder has to obtain OC from the BBMP within three months of completion of the project obtainment of completion certificate. Buildings without OC are not entitled to power and water connections.
Builder Indemnity
Since the project takes 24 months to 48 months for completion, an “indemnity bond” and “letter of undertaking and affidavit” should be taken from the builder confirming that construction will be as per the approved plan and the completion certificate will be obtained within 3 months of the completion of the project.
Execution of MOE by land owner
If the project is under joint development and the builder has taken a loan, it is desirable that the landlords are made part of the Memorandum of entry, so that they cannot say later that they were not aware of the loan.
Legal Documentation
Be cautious while executing the agreement with the builder. Read and understand the implications of conditions in the agreements since they are normally in favour of the builder with very little scope for legal recourse. It is prudent to have a legal consultant to vet the documents.
Pay the Right Price
Get the apartment measured to verify the carpet area. Builders sell on the basis of super built up area, which includes balconies, common utilities such as swimming pool, gym and staircases, due to which the carpet area gets reduced drastically. Normally, the difference is around 15-20 %: an apartment with a super built up area of 2,000 sqft generally has a carpet area (actual usable area) of only 1600sqft.
Systematically Maintain all Records
Systematically maintain a “master file” consisting of all documents such as copies of receipts of instalments paid, title search report of the project flat, plan approval copy, agreement of sale and construction, commencement certificate, and the “Occupancy Certificate”.
The vicious cycle of maintenance calculation, payment dues, reminders and door-to-door maintenance collections kept most of the apartment management associations on their toes a few years back.
Keeping a track of the defaulters, reminding the defaulters to pay the maintenance and then finally collecting the same made the already difficult job of managing an apartment even tougher for the apartment associations. Also, since there was no way of ensuring whether a resident has read a maintenance fee reminder notice posted on the apartment notice board, the only way out for the RWA (Resident Welfare Association) was to reach out to residents and collect maintenance on a door-to-door basis. This was a highly painful and a time consuming process. In addition, one had to depend excessively on manpower for this activity, which increased the costs as well.
Thanks to technology, long gone are the days when apartment management associations were reaching out to residents on a one-to-one basis to collect maintenance. Management associations now use sophisticated apartment management software to simplify their maintenance collection process to an extent of a single mouse click!
One of the misconceptions that most of the apartment management associations had was about apartment management software being very costly. This misconception was cleared, when a lot of apartments started using ApnaComplex, a cost-effective subscription-based leading apartment management software with zero hardware costs and an ongoing support. The cost of the software is directly proportional to the number of units an apartment has, making it more economical than ever for the apartment management associations.
How apartment management software helps the management associations in timely collections?
Timely reminder for payments – The apartment management software instead of sending reminders to each and every resident one by one, empowers the management association to now send automatic reminders to all residents at one go via email/SMS. Residents don’t mean to default on maintenance payments, it’s their hectic schedules and absence of a mechanism to remind them in a timely manner that makes them miss out on submitting the maintenance charges on time. A reminder system reduces the default rate up to a great extent.
Ease of paying maintenance charges – The software comes with a payment gateway that empowers the residents to make their payments online and directly crediting the amount to society’s bank account. The payment can be made via credit/debit card or net banking as per resident’s convenience. This eases the residents from the whole ordeal of coming to the society office just to drop a cheque or pay in cash and in the same time saves the management association from the entire reconciliation effort.
Reduces manpower costs– The software automates the entire process of collections and reduces the requirement of any manpower for collections. The notices/reminders are sent in a timely and periodic manner to the residents and there is absolutely no requirement for a person to conduct door-to-door collections or inform residents about payment defaults.
Filter the list of defaulters – The apartment management software enables the management association to filter the list of defaulters. The entire process gets automated and a list of residents whose maintenance payments are due can be easily drawn out along with the penalty to be charged from them. This helps the management association to identify the exact number of defaulters to be contacted. Emails/SMS to be sent out to defaulters is also automated through this software reducing the manual work up to a great extent.
Meets expectations of both apartment management association and residents – A lot of timesa warning message posted on the apartment notice board about maintenance default provokes residents to get into a verbal spat with the management associations. A timely reminder via SMS/email can cause lesser disputes, higher collections for management associations and lesser defaults on behalf of residents ensuring their harmonious living in the apartment.
Sun City Apartment Owners Association (SAOA) managing an apartment of 1200+ apartment units revealed that using ApnaComplex, a cost-effective subscription based apartment management software has led to a quicker collection cycle and much lesser defaulters in their apartment. It has enabled online payments with about 55% payments now happening online reducing the manual effort of reconciliation up to a great extent. The association now has a much clearer view on individual resident account and collection of long pending dues has been possible only because of ApnaComplex.
Maintaining a full-time staff or volunteers who lack expertise/time while dealing with maintenance collections or collecting default payments can become a very expensive as well as tiresome process. Use apartment management software to relieve your association from the painful process of door-to door maintenance collections today!
HomeConnectOnline, India’s first of its kind market place for lifestyle services is conducting a Valentine’s Day contest exclusively for ApnaComplex customers.
With the Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you must be planning of gifting your loved ones with a gift that makes them feel loved and happy. Well, maybe you don’t need to buy it anymore!
HomeConnectOnline is offering an exciting opportunity for the customers of ApnaComplex to win exciting prizes on this Valentine’ Day.
All you have to do is answer three simple questions and you may even win an exquisitely crafted gold plated rose to gift your loved one.
In the budget for 9-months last year, the new government had stressed on the vision for making housing more affordable. What is the real estate sector in India expecting from the Budget 2015-2016. Let’s have a look:
Provisions to boost affordable housing:
In the budget last year, the new government had stressed on its vision to boost affordable housing. In the 2015-2016 budget, the real estate sector is expecting provisions to be provided by the government to the developers for making housing more affordable.
Offer incentives to develop green real estate:
The upcoming budget is expected to let the consumers clearly know the benefits of green real estate in the country. The residential real estate developers need much more encouragement for going green. Since the buyers of homes in India are not quite ready to pay extra premium and don’t fully understand the concept of a sustainable residential project, even the developers are averse to enter this segment. The Union Budget this time is expected to offer incentives to boost the development and consumption of sustainable real estate development in India.
Tax incentives for renting out residential properties:
For improving the supply of rental properties in metros and boosting the rental pan-India housing segment the Union Budget is expected to offer tax incentives on rental income. Presently, rental income is treated just like any other taxable income. Tax incentives is required for more residential properties to be rented out.
Speeding up project approvals:
The developers in India have been demanding for speeding up the project approval process. Quicker approvals are expected to widen the supply pipeline, which would in turn help in reducing the prices and ensuring real estate sector’s rise from the slump it has been in lately. The budget is expected to take measures for speeding up the approval process along with measures to ensure quality norms of construction are not compromised resulting in infrastructure failure for new projects.
REIT Fast Tracking:
Political instability, red – tapism and lack of apt regulations had kept the Indian real estate market away from foreign investment funds. The new budget has a great chance to make India friendlier towards foreign investment by introducing a revised tax code. Overcoming the tax counter-productive hurdles is very important for REIT, which can become an absolute booster for the overall economy and the Indian real estate sector.
Real Estate Regulatory Bill Implementation (RERA):
The RERA bill is expected to be implemented this time since the approval for the Real Estate Regulatory Bill has been delayed for quite some time now. With the implementation of the bill the Indian real estate sector is expected to be more open to the investors from foreign countries. This policy is an absolute must for the growth of the Indian realty sector.
LARR counter-productive clauses to be relaxed:
Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act has been formulated and has been changed again and again for quite some time now. However, it has failed to deal with land bureaucracy. Currently, the LARR Act deters the developers and institutional investors’ big time. The realty sector in India wants to desperately cross this hurdle as a lot of land is required for infrastructure and real estate development. With the Union Government’s vision of affordable housing and development of 100 smart cities across India, the Budget should make suitable changes to the LARR Act.
The real estate sector is looking forward to some major reforms and reliefs from the Union Budget 2015-2016. Let’s see how much expectations this budget can meet for the Indian realty sector.
“To keep or not to keep the pet, that is the question.” Every pet owner asks this question to himself before buying or renting a house in an apartment today. With the mushrooming growth of the apartment complexes in India, it’s quite common to hear stories of how pet owners on one fine day find a letter taped on the notice board of the society (on behalf of apartment association) of how pets are banned and they should either abandon the pet or vacate the apartment.
As per an advocate practicing at Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India, the apartment associations and RWAs of apartment complexes cannot legislate and pass such decisions and abstain citizens from their rights to own a pet. It is unlawful and a form of harassment if the RWA is following such practices.
Let’s have a look at the do’s and don’ts that an RWA should take care of for building a harmonious community:
Dos:
Request pet owners to always keep their pets on leash.
Issue guidelines to clean after their pets in case they are soiling the common areas and lifts.
Set timings for pets to use the park area when small children are not playing so that there is no calamity.
Put gentle reminders for pet owners to vaccinate their pets on a regular basis.
Don’ts:
An apartment management association cannot ban any resident from keeping a pet even if the majority votes for the same.
RWA cannot comment on the size of the pet to be kept in the apartment.
The pets cannot be banned to use the lifts.
Pets cannot be banned to use common areas and park area.
On the other hand, it is important for the pet owners to understand their responsibilities towards the other residents so that the community living is harmonious for both. The pets should be trained in such a way that they should not be provoked when seeing other residents or children. Ensure they are always on a leash in common areas and are properly vaccinated. At the end, your pets should not become a nuisance for everyone else living in the apartment. Proper walks for your pet, food and water at the right time and lastly, love and care will help it remain healthy and content. Keeping a pet is not easy, so in case you do plan to keep one, make sure you are very disciplined yourself as a little carelessness on your side towards your pet can cause a huge ruckus in your entire apartment complex!
So, for all you aspiring pet owners out there, don’t be afraid to get yourself a pet today, but remember it’s a great responsibility that you need to carry out diligently every single day.
