Site visit checklist for an under construction flat

Before you go

Request these by email a few days ahead. Asking in advance tells you something regardless of what arrives.

1. The RERA registration number for the specific phase and tower.
2. The latest two or three Quarterly Progress Reports. You can also pull these yourself from the portal, and the seven checks explain what to read in them.
3. The sanctioned plan, or at least the site plan showing tower positions and the amenity block.
4. The floor plate for your tower, showing homes per floor and lift positions.
5. The specification sheet: structure, flooring, fittings, doors, windows, electrical.
6. The payment schedule and the list of charges outside the base price.

The approach and the gate

Start before you arrive. The last two kilometres are part of the product.

• Drive the route you would actually commute, at the hour you would actually drive it. A ten minute distance at 11am can be a forty minute one at 9am.
• Width and condition of the approach road, and whether it is being widened or dug up.
• What else is being built nearby. Cranes within sight are your future traffic, and possibly your future view.
• Low lying ground, storm drains and water marks on compound walls. Bengaluru's flooding is local and repetitive, so ask neighbours rather than the sales team.
• Distance to the nearest metro station, hospital and school, measured by driving it rather than by reading it.
• Mobile signal strength, on the approach and inside the site.

The tower and your floor

Ask to see your actual tower, not only the show flat. If the structure has reached your floor, ask to go up. Sites have safety rules and you may need to be accompanied, which is reasonable. Being refused outright without a safety reason is itself informative.

What to establish standing there:

1. Which direction your unit faces, confirmed with a compass on your phone rather than with the site plan's north arrow.
2. What is in front of you, and what that land is zoned for. A view over open ground is temporary unless something protects it.
3. Distance to the next tower, and whether windows face each other.
4. Where the generator, pump room, garbage collection and transformer sit relative to your unit. These are the most common sources of noise and smell complaints after possession, and they are visible on the site plan.
5. Lift positions and count, and how far your front door is from them.
6. Afternoon sun. A west facing living room in Bengaluru is noticeably warmer from about 3pm. What changes with floor and facing is worth reading before this visit.

Inside the flat

If you can see a sample flat finished to delivery specification, that is the single most useful thing on the site. Ask explicitly: what here is standard and what is an upgrade? Write the answer down.

Then check:

• Room dimensions against your own furniture. Bring measurements of your bed, wardrobe and dining table. A bedroom that cannot take your wardrobe without blocking a door is a problem you discover now or in three years.
• Door swings. Open every door in the plan and see what it hits.
• Window size and position, and whether the ventilation is genuinely cross flowing or only on one face.
• Balcony depth. Measure it. A balcony you cannot put two chairs on is a ledge.
• Electrical points, their number and position, especially in kitchen and bedrooms.
• Bathroom layout, and whether there is provision for a washing machine where you would want one.
• Utility and drying space, which is routinely undersized and rarely mentioned.
• Wall construction. Whether the structure is monolithic matters for what you can change later, and that is a decision you cannot revisit after possession.

The 20 photographs

Take all of these. They cost nothing and they are dated.

1. The approach road, from the main road to the gate
2. The entrance gate and security arrangement
3. The project name board showing the RERA number
4. The site plan displayed on site
5. The overall site from a high point, if you are allowed up
6. Your tower from the ground, showing construction stage
7. The view in each direction from your floor level
8. The gap between your tower and the next
9. The lift lobby on your floor
10. The flat's main living space
11. Each bedroom, from the doorway
12. The kitchen, including the utility
13. Each bathroom
14. The balcony, with something for scale
15. Any visible structural or finishing work in progress
16. The generator, transformer and pump room locations
17. The garbage collection point
18. The clubhouse or its site, for the separate clubhouse assessment
19. The parking area and ramp
20. The specification sheet and price sheet you were handed

Photograph the documents too. A price sheet handed across a table and not photographed has a way of being remembered differently by both sides.

Questions to ask on site

1. What stage is this tower at, and how does that compare with the last progress filing?
2. What is the declared possession date on the registration for this phase, and has it been extended?
3. What is the water source, the storage capacity, and is there a sewage treatment plant with treated water reuse?
4. What power backup is provided, for common areas and for individual flats, and at what load?
5. How many lifts serve this tower, and what backs them up during an outage?
6. What is the carpet area of this unit, and on which basis was the quoted size calculated?
7. What is the estimated maintenance charge per square foot, and what does it cover?
8. Which phase is the clubhouse in, and when does it open?
9. Is any adjacent land held for a future phase, and what will it be?
10. What is standard specification in this sample flat and what is an upgrade?

Question one is the most revealing. If the site is visibly behind what the last filing claimed, you have found something worth a written explanation, and you have found it before paying.

The second visit

What the second visit shows you:

• The commute, at the hour you would make it.
• The working site, rather than the presentation of it. Labour on site, materials stacked, work actually progressing or not.
• The surroundings on an ordinary day: traffic, noise, dust, what the neighbouring plots are doing.
• Residents, if any part is occupied. Ask them about water, power cuts, maintenance and whether the developer resolves snags. Five minutes of this is worth an afternoon in a sales lounge.

Then compare your photographs from both visits against the quarterly progress filings. Two dated sets of your own photographs and two filings give you something very few buyers have: an independent record of whether this project does what it says it will.