Bangalore Tenant Trap - Maintenance

There are two types of maintenance

• Monthly
• While vacating 

Monthly

Monthly maintenance charges will be agreed and mentioned in rental agreement. It involves Security personal's salary, common area electricity, lift maintenance, water, etc. It varies between Rs.1000/- and Rs.5000/-.

The trap is that maintenance amount also will be increased based on apartment association decision at any point of time.

If maintenance is based on shared basis then it will not be constant each month. Based on consumption of common electricity and purchasing outside water through tankers, it may vary. Especially water scarcity and power cuts will be more in summer which increase usage of gen sets and purchase of water through tankers.

Personal experience*: Association decided to complete certain civil work which builder failed before hand over the apartment building. Like adding extra rails in staircases and repairing (common) punctured solar water containers at the terrace, patching work at parking lot, etc. These are not exactly maintenance (at least in view of tenant), it is capital civil work which will long even after tenant vacates the property.

You cannot vacate the house in protest for the amount increased as the cost of relocating to another house is huge. (Writing separate post regarding that in near future). Some land lords may bear the increase until rental agreement tenure but it will be eventual anyway.

Vacating

Land lord will charge one month rent for repainting, cleaning the house after you vacate. The trap is that it will be deducted from security deposit irrespective of the house condition (even house is already neat and clean).

Even if you vacate within few months also one month rent will be deducted. In current job market and nature of IT companies labour policies, moving to another city or company is very common.

I strongly believe that it will not cost 22k to repaint a 2BHK flat. Still in our locality it is common to deduct one month rent (22k in our case).

Wear and tear

When you rent a old flat then you may end up in this particular trap. Because of salt water geyser parts will be rusted soon. Tenant cannot replace a new geyser but land lard still insists it is coming under maintenance.

Some examples (not exhausting list)

• Fan may start making lot of noise because of wore out bearing.
• Kitchen sink tap may be leaking (worn out spindle - please note copper parts costs significantly)
• Cup board handles may come out (because of low quality or rough handling of previous tenant)
• Window hooks may come out because of heavy wind (if you stay at top floors) 
• On/Off switch may be loose (wear and tear)
• Plug points may be loose (wear and tear)
• etc.

Land lord may include these into your maintenance##.

* This may not be common practice but i experienced this personally.
## If you live in the same house for 10 years, then these may be true in your case. But most of the cases, IT crowd switches job every 2 years as per a survey (you don't need a survey, this is very obvious)

Bangalore Tenant Trap - Advance aka Security Deposit

#Please note in the post Advance and Security deposit used inter-changeably.

History

Tenant pays advance amount to the landlord as a security for the infra-structure in the house like furniture, cub boards, bath room and electrical fittings, etc. While vacating if anything is damaged and Tenant left as it is then Landlord can detect equivalent amount from advance.

High Security Deposit (aka Advance)

Most of the Metropolitan cities and major towns, tenant must pay advance amount. Normally it would be maximum 2 to 3 months of agreed rent amount. Example: If rent is Rs.1000/- then advance would be Rs.3000/- But in Bangalore, it is 10 months' rent. You should surprised to know that a decent 2BHK apartment rent would be Ra.20,000/-** That boils down 2 lakhs as advance. Why only in Bangalore, advance is so high? Bangalore rented houses mostly furnished. So it needs bigger amount. Well, now-a-days, most of the houses are "semi-furnished" but advance amount remains high. (semi-furnished article follows ;-) )

Interest

If you few thousands as advance then there is no need to worry about interest component. Whereas, if advance is Rs.2,00,000/- then you will be suffer significant amount on interest. That too, if you stay at a same house for many years then compound interest (interest on interest) will apply. Mind it, advance is always interest free. While vacating you will not even receive what you have paid as advance. Read entire post for further details.

Token Advance

The deal officially freezes only if Tenant pays token advance. It may be around Rs.5000/-. Most of the time tenant will not get any receipt for it. If Tenant decides not to go ahead with the deal, then token advance will not be returned.

Brokerage 

The Finder's fees aka brokerage would be 1 month rent. This must be paid while paying token advance itself if you go through an agent.

Rental Agreement

Landlord will issue rental agreement after you occupied the house. This rental agreement duration is for only 11 months. Tenant must pay the cost of preparing rental agreement which may be around Rs.500/- (as on Dec 2016). Rental agreement is the only legal proof for the advance paid. Needless to say, mostly Tenant only shows interest to get this one as quickly as possible. The terms in the agreement will be loosely inferred to support landlord in case of any dispute. Example: Maintenance, deductions while vacating, etc. etc. The rent will be increased to 5% to 10% after 11 months irrespective of any new addition in amenities.

** May differ location to location. But this would be around 20k.

Bangalore tenant Trap - Power Backup

When inspecting flat in apartment, you could see a nice looking electricity generator installed in the parking lot. Whoever walk you through the facility (mostly the security guy) shows this wonderful amenity.

The land lord before disclosing the exorbitant rent, proud himself about this feature called "Power Backup". You can confidently assume, he will be living in another metropolitan city, in a rented house, working hard to pays his dream house's EMI without penalty.

Your first surprise will knock you at 11.00 pm while speaking with your client aboard (when working from home to take care of your sick kid). Unexpectedly dark surround your flat and your mind. What happened to "Power Backup"?!?

Well, electricity generators will run

• from 6.00 pm (or when sun goes down) to 10.00 pm sharp. and 
• from 6.00 am to 10 am sharp**. 
• to save panicked souls stuck inside lift (when electricity goes while they are using lift)
• when apartment secretary (or who runs/controls apartment society) or their family members/friends uses lift 
• when apartment secretary (or who runs/controls apartment society) or their family members wants to grind masala in mixie

You will be clueless when your wife shout at high pitch when only your Geyser is not working in the crazy morning time to bath your naughty kids whereas Geysers working flawless in your neighbor's flat. Do I explicitly state your neighbor is friend of apartment secretary?

Lesson:
Power backup means

• It is not 24/7 unless it is stated clearly
• limited to specific duration of a day
• Generator will be switched on for influenced people whenever they want it
• Monthly maintenance amount may go up based on the usage of Genset

Glossary:
Apartment Society: Bunch of people who controls common amenities. Also called Apartment association.


** The timing may differ based on current apartment secretary. 

Welcome to Bangalore as Tenant

Are you planning to relocate to Bangalore in near future?
Are you looking for a accommodation in Bangalore?
Are you trying to locate a nice location to live in Bangalore?
Are you wondering what would be renting apartment means in Bangalore?
What would be terms and conditions to rent a house in Bangalore?

A lot of questions was popping up in front me, few years back when I decided to relocate to Bangalore. If these and many more related questions are haunting your mind now, then you are at right place.

I will share my journey as a tenant in Bangalore. Whenever possible, I will be explicitly stating what is common practice here and what is my own experience (it may or may not suitable to you).

So keep reading...