Sobha Developers - Not Transparent, Cheaters, Never meet their deadlines

Like everyone else, even i am a disgruntled Sobha Customer. Had i known that they would turn out like this, i would have never given them a single cent. Below is the summary of my experience with them.

Booked an apartment in one of Sobha’s Project during November 2006. I was told that the delivery would be sometime during mid 2008. Its now April 2009, but till date there is no final word about handover. They have extended this for about 3 times already now.
Initially due to bank loan and other formalities, my payment was delayed for about 3 days. Just 3 days only, and those crooks charged me an interest @ 24% p.a. Seriously I never expected they would do that. But then it was ok. It was written in their agreement that they would do so, so i was fine with it. After that their CRM use to send me monthly reports by email with photos. But then sometime in Feb 2008, even that stopped. They stopped sending monthly updates and they informed me saying that they would be sending quaterly updates instead. Again, i didnt really have much say in all this, so i just took everything they threw at me.

Till date they have now almost collected 90% of the amount of the house. As per the agreement, they were suppose to pay me Rs.10,000 monthly compensation in case there is any delay beyond Feb 2009. Now this period is also after 6 months of grace. So effectively they were suppose to complete the project by Aug 2008. Now when i ask them about the compensation, their CRM informs me that all of it will be settled during the final handover. Even at my end, i need to do some fair bit of financial planning to cough out the final extra cash that would be needed during the handover. But, Sobha’s CRM just refuses to tell me any average figure. I have some serious suspicions that in the end, they might just add some arbitrary charges and set everything off against it and finally i will have to pay for everything. Already this delay of more than a year has effectively costed me around Rs.10 lacs i don't know whats going to come up next.

Some points i would like to summarize:

1. Sobha is NOT transparent in their dealings with their customers. They arbitrarily include many charges for which there is absolutely no justification or reason. They collect 3 times or even 4 times the actual charges that Sobha incurs for Electricity, Water and etc. The worst is the lawyer fees, if you notice, they charge anywhere between Rs.10000 to Rs.30000 as legal fees. Come on, which lawyer in India charges that much money to draft simple agreements? Even in the US lawyers are not so expensive.

2. Sobha projects are always delayed. So my suggestion to prospective buyers would be to buy only completed flats and never to buy if its incomplete. I repeat, completed means, should be ready to move in. There is a huge difference between completed flats and flats ready to move in.

3. Sobha Agreements are insanely one sided. I have never seen such agreements anywhere. They are not meant to protect the customer, but to kill the customer. Initally the sales guy might give you many sweet talks, but make sure you read the fine lines in the agreement.

4. The main reason why people choose developers like Sobha is because of their so called customer satisfaction, transparency and reliability. Where as now, all of these are simply defeated. So you pay a premium not for these extra services, but to get yourself into an never ending trap.

5. Personally the reason why i chose Sobha and agreed to pay a premium for their apartment, is only for one reason - their commitment to its customers. But now all of that is just broken. If we had to deal with so much issues, then why should we pay premium for their houses?

6. Quality of their houses - Well i havent yet owned any. So i cant comment. But i have read other people’s comments here, so i can safelt assume that its not so great. Its pretty similar to what anyone else would give you.


My Ratings:

Sobha developers - Transparent in dealing : 2 / 10

Sobha developers - Customer Service : 2 / 10 (repeatedly write emails to get one word reply from them)

Sobha developers - In keeping its promises : 0 / 10

A disgruntled sobha customer.