BRAToSPHERE

Tag: House

  • House Hunting

    One of my colleagues pointed me to this article where a celebrity was denied accommodation in Mumbai. It reminded me of my own troubles in finding a house.

    I have stayed in five cities in the last five plus years that I have been working, and have changed seven houses since then.

    Right since my early Delhi days, to Bangalore, Hubli, Mumbai and now Gurgaon, one thing that has always remained common across each of these cities is the pain associated with house hunting.

    If it is the astronomical amount demanded in the form of deposit in Bangalore, it is the high rentals demanded in Mumbai that becomes the sore point. The fact that I would be  a single bachelor staying in the house any which ways got seventy percent of the houses out of my realms. And this Anti-bachelor resonated in all of the cities without exception.

    The most troublesome place to find a house is Mumbai. As it is popularly said in Mumbai, getting a roof on your head is the toughest part, everything else can be sorted.

    The worse thing here, among other things, is the lease expiry issue. The lease is always made for eleven months and the owner has the complete right to kick you out of the house with no reasons whatsoever. This in spite of having a strict “no party at my place” rule to your friends, in spite of having a travelling job and rarely staying in the house and in spite of having no visitors at all.

    I believe I am like the ideal tenant to have. The real tenant was not me at all! It was my stuff which needed a roof and I had to pay a huge monthly premium to let it be. I was out most of the time.

    The other worse thing in Mumbai is the concept of a “co-operative housing society”. The whole purpose of such entities seems to be to ensure that the rental process becomes difficult. Even the owner has no say most of the time.

    Non-Vegetarian? Sorry!

    South Indian? Sorry!

    From South India? Even then sorry!

    Bachelor? Well, non-starter this one is.

    Bachelor is the word that every landlord shuns like plague. So much that many a brokers suggested that I lie that my Mom would stay with me, or even go to the extent of lying that I was married!

    Things here in Gurgaon seem to be slightly better. That I think is more a function of the huge supply!

    Hopefully I would not have to embark on this journey again any soon.

  • Home Search in Mumbai – Painful

    Been on a roller coaster ride the last couple of weeks.

    Exactly about a month back my house owner asked me to vacate the house. It is apparently an annual ritual in Mumbai. You would know, if you are one of the many staying here in rented apartment. The lease is for 11 months, and the owner was not interested in renewing it. He had someone of his own coming over to Mumbai, and he needed his house for him.

    Okay! Who am I to question? It is his apartment, and I had to vacate.

    So there starts the ordeal, again. House search.

    For anyone who has stayed in Mumbai would know, House search here is a complex quagmire of brokers, agents, and hazaar touts all there to make a quick buck out of you. And God save you if you are a bachelor. Flat Owners, or rather the “society” considers bachelors as social outcasts and most of them do not allow us into their flats.

    So, every day after office this would be my routine. Catch hold of some broker, see some shady houses and after a good long evening spent waste, get back home without really being impressed with any House! This was after spending a week exhausting myself trying to get hold of some owner directly through the magical bricks and sulekhas of the world. No avail.

    Funny thing I realize is how these owners come up with weird reasons to say no to renting out to a bachelor. Just say it man! I would atleast respect you for that. Why dilly dally things, and waste each other’s time?

    There was this decent flat , close to my office, which I had zeroed in, and, as became the norm, I told the broker well in advance that I would be staying alone and I am a dreaded “Bachelor”. I saw the house, liked it, insisted on meeting the owner and set up a meeting on a Saturday. The owner seemed cool, and I again re-iterated my point that I would staying alone here. A Bachelor! He was cool with it.

    I had decided that I would move in on the following Wednesday, and had stopped my house search. What happens? The owner stops responding, and finally declares that he just got a notification from the society ( had to be just!) that the houses cannot be let out. The societies are the easy bakras to make infamous! I hung up, and started the house search all over again.

    Again, after seeing a lot of shady houses, I finalized on a nice flat on the first floor in a good society. I generally prefer flat on higher storeys, but I was running out of time and more importantly was fed up of all the running around. I finalized the house, and spoke to the owner (who stays in a different city) and again clarified that I am a bachelor. I even issued the token cheque of a month’s rent value ( the rent was 15% higher than what I was paying but I was still okay, out of desperation!)

    The broker started getting the agreement copies ready, or that is what he claimed, and I decided to move in on Wednesday( again!). On Monday evening, the owner calls and declares that he plans to sell away this house, and thus to avoid “putting me to inconvenience” he has now decided against renting out the apartment. Hypocrite Ba*$%rd!

    The house search begins again, and now I am really desperate. The notice period issued to me by the present owner would soon expire and I do not want to be homeless!

    The search starts again!

    I was on the verge of finalizing a shady old house, with paint falling from every corner, for an higher amount than what I was paying presently, all in desperation.

    I then came across this lead through some other broker (of course). 10th floor, not so far from office, and an absolutely new Society.( The owner took possession one day before I moved in!). Needless to say, i finalised it on the spot and moved in last Friday. The wohle weekend was spent setting up the house.

    So, I now have a new address.

    Home search is such a pain, and completing the entire process is such a relief!

    This is how I had spent my entire August.

    Oh! and by the way, those who follow me on twitter/ Facebook already know, I also got to go to London to watch the Olympics!