In 2014, after graduating from the YIF, I rented a flat in South Delhi with the help of a broker found through Housing.com. He took me to four houses, and I finalized the one that I liked the most. It was well ventilated, airy and independent. The landlord lived 50 km away in Greater Noida, and seemed least bothered about who was renting the house. Water and electricity seemed normal, the taps were working, fans were whirling. So I moved in with a truckload of goods (majorly books and clothes) accumulated over my seven years in Delhi.
However, one day later, there lay a surprise in store. The house had an acute water shortage. The motor pumped water only when switched on early in the morning (4 am – 6 am). Moreover, the water tank for my apartment was shared with the flat at the ground floor (that belonged to my landlord), where a family of 7 lived. Every morning, by 11, the water would get over, and for the entire day, one would be devoid of water. The landlord was unavailable for help and the nearby broker ridiculously suggested that I could use his washroom to bathe, if needed. On occasions, I had to rush to the Select City Walk Mall to attend nature’s calls, and frequent my friend Nikhil’s place nearby to bathe. When I knocked on my neighbours’ doors for water, they related how even the previous tenant used to beg for water all the time and ultimately left the home disgruntled. I was shocked to be duped into this by the broker as well as the landlord. When I pestered them for two months, they kept making fake promises. The landlord didn’t even budge when I held his rent for half a month. A month later, when I gave notice to the landlord and packed all the stuff, he came flying all the way from Greater Noida and replaced the earlier faulty motor with a brand new one. Now everything was fine. However, I lost over 30k rupees in the process, security, moving and advance for the new place.
If only, there was a review by the previous tenant, all the hassle could have been prevented. If only, there was a platform where I could review, I could have made the landlord more accountable and act swiftly.
Presenting something that we have been working for the past 2 months that aims to solve this problem. We call it Flatabout, and we are India’s first mobile app that collates and provides reviews of flats by current and previous residents. We are currently in alpha, and invite only.
You could opt in for the alpha version at www.flatabout.com Looking forward to hearing from you!
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(Founder & CEO at Flatabout)