03 November,2012 08:44 AM IST | | MiD DAY Correspondent
Yesterday, this paper wrote about how builders were duping prospective homebuyers by selling flats on saleable area, which includes built-up and super built-up area, instead of carpet area. This was found taking place at an exhibition at the Bandra Kurla Complex - the MCHI-CREDAI exhibition, which has huge credibility.
Builders and their representatives trying to dupe persons by quoting saleable area at a place like this raises certain questions. If the builders have the temerity to flout rules here, what would they be trying with individual buyers? How far would they bend the ethics then?
What's even more disconcerting is that some of the biggest, most reputed names in the business are involved in this scam. Asked why they were doing this when the MCHI's own Code of Conduct stipulates that a builder should disclose the carpet area to the buyer, many feigned disbelief. Some even reacted with indifference. Others claimed that there wasn't much difference between saleable area and carpet area.
While builders often complain about being tainted by the media, incidents like these cement their disrepute as a breed that cannot be trusted
From unfinished projects to taking advantage of flat owners during redevelopment, a buyer is repeatedly told to be wary of builders, and many times, with good reason.
One housing expert who is a regular at several housing society seminars in the city tells flat owners that they need to videotape every meeting they have with a builder proposing redevelopment, simply so that he cannot go back on his word.
Everybody knows someone who has been taken for a ride by some builder. On a platform as big as this, builders need to work hard to bridge that trust deficit with prospective buyers, rather than cement (pun intended) their disrepute in ways that contradict, ironically, their own Code of Conduct.u00a0
