Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Delays in handover of projects by Sobha Developers

Sobha Developers had promised to deliver Sobha Iris in March 2007 which got delay to September 2007 and then Feb 2008.

In fact now it has been delayed to July 2008. I don't think they should be called reputed builders because a good builder would have done good planning. I'm not sure whether their quality is good these days. It used to be good in 2002 days when the demand was less.

Conclusion is : Make sure you read the sale agreement properly for any delays etc. and look at their past one year track record. I would disagree if Sobha Developers are called reputed. I don't know about other properties but couple of friends got their possession on time but it was in 2005. May be there is a common problem in delivering projects on time these days. Hmmm.....After all it's an ugly business.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Careful About Payments to be made to Sobha Developers

Hear is a sad story from a customer of Sobha Developers, S Acharya.

I was supposed to book Sobha basil , about a year back. I went ahead , got all documentation done, put in the hard earned booking amount of 4 lakhs.

To my dismay, Sobha couldn't furnish a couple of docs which needed disbursal of the loan. I had to wait for 6 months , and then decided to withdraw.

That was a good decision , but Sobha has its conditions too. They cut off Rs 50,000 on my cheque. I was so unimpressed , i just wanted to get off their tantrums and false promises. Yes it did hurt me, but then i was moving to the US, and took that loss.

In the future, everyone, pls read all docs before signing up.

Last I have realized, a house is a liability. If its an Asset for me, it should be a Liability for the builder. Thats actually not so.

Today, I believe that one should buy, when the markets are down. These builders who have risen the wave of good funding, will only goof up things, cause they dont care an iota about customer satisfaction.

Another similar complaint from Samir Singh:

I am ready to contribute to sue Sobha Developers in court of law. My case is similar and now they are asking me to pay Rs. 1 lakh as interest charges - which is increasing day by day (as I am not paying the same for the last 4 months - after I came to knew that there are interest charges on me).

Those who all are interested please mail me and I will try to see how to go about it (currently I am in US and that is the major constraint for me).

Monday, November 12, 2007

Dissatifaction from false assurances Given by Sobha Developers

I came across this below complaint from an existing customer of Sobha Developers, Swetasri Choudhury. I hope this information below helps someone out there.

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Sobha Developers Limited in Bangalore is well-known for building quality residential properties. Their reputation is wide-spread in Bangalore. And so, when we wanted to buy an apartment we chose to consider a Sobha property. We looked at several properties built by Sobha and were impressed.

After elaborate financial arrangements, we booked an apartment at Sobha Sunscape in July. We were in fact not ready yet and needed 3-4 weeks more time so that we could arrange for the initial payment. The sales-person assured us he would extend the time and persuaded us to make the booking. As a family we were pleased we could pool in our resources and buy an apartment from a good builder. After the loan was sanctioned by the bank, it was a sense of achievement that everything was in place and we were realizing our dream of having our own home.

We made the initial payment to Sobha which was partly from own funds and partly from the loan. After about a month, we received the demand from Sobha for payment for the next slab. This was the starting point for the surprises. In addition to the slab payment, Sobha also demanded interest on delayed payments. Over the last few weeks we have had several communications with Sobha on this matter and to put it mildly our experience has been disappointing. As a result of the rigourous communications, Sobha partly reduced the interest charges. The sales-person has backed out from honouring the rest of his assurance.

On analyzing the transactions, we found discrepancies too. Our bank had disbursed a lesser amount per their recommendation after assessing of the project progress. Sobha mentioned they were correct in their demand. They wanted us to produce a letter from the bank with this information and promised to act on the same. After we produced the letter, they stated that they would not consider it. We felt deceived. Why did they want the letter if they were not to consider it? We noticed that in the cases where we had handed the cheque to their sales-person, Sobha had recorded it only on the next day. Hence, they charged the interest for an extra day. On one instance the courier was delivered on the Saturday, they recorded the transaction on Tuesday.

We expect honesty from reputed companies. Sadly, my experience with Sobha has been different. As a customer of Sobha, my interaction with their people has caused me disappointment. For a reputed company, Sobha is not righteous in its policies. While they charge the customer interest at 18% by reflecting delays, they exempt themselves from any delays. They carefully do not commit any slab dates, so no delays come upon them. To my frustration, when I offered to make future payments in advance to counter some of the interest charged to me, they refused to account the advance in the same way.

At the outset, in spite of being confident that Sobha will deliver to me an impressive apartment and in spite of paying a premium price for that apartment, I'm afraid their trivializing ways have tarnished the pleasure of owning a Sobha property. As Sobha's customer, I have been through a false assurance; a false commitment leading me to obtain information from my bank; penalties for transactions incorrectly recorded by them and subjected to unfavourable policies.

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