Talk about real estate and the general public shies away. But you can hardly blame them considering some of the methods developers use against helpless home buyers. Like the way in which builders make it tough for customers to sell a purchased flat in order to make bigger profits. We give you 3 tactics that you must watch out for when selling your flat.

1 – Transfer charges
The so-called ‘Transfer Charge’ is the amount that builders demand from buyers when they are selling their homes. There is no fixed amount and transfer charges can range anywhere from Rs 100 per sq. feet to Rs 1,000 per sq. feet and even higher. Developers use transfer charges to ensure that home buyers don’t sell below the price of the developer’s existing stock in a project. At other times, they use this to take a cut of the profits that price appreciation in an area would have netted the home buyer. Either way, experts say these transfer charges are illegal.

2 – Lock-in periods
Under this restriction, home buyers are prevented from selling their flat for a fixed term from the date of purchase. While buyers have the right to dispose of their property as and when they wish, this clause isn’t exactly illegal and some of the biggest builders in the country insisting on including it in their sales agreement. The idea is to prevent investors from buying units in a project and selling it even before the developer’s own inventory has been sold out. Lock-in periods can range anywhere between 2 to 5 years.

3 – Refusals to grant NOCs
As a homebuyer, you have the right to refuse to pay a transfer fee or be bound by a lock-in period. But if you do that, developers can create other problems by refusing to grant a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the sale of the house. This is essential for the future purchaser as most banks insist on NOCs before granting loans.

The only way out of this mess is to ensure that the sales agreement doesn’t contain these clauses when you are buying a flat. If the developer insists on it, walk away. In the current market, there are enough opportunities for you to choose from, without having to split your profits with the developer.

Nikhil Narayan Sivadas, Assistant Editor, NDTV

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