Apartment Hunting.
Do Diwane is Shaher mein, Raat mein aur dopahaar mein,
Abu daana dhund te hain….Ashiyana dhund te hain…
Being born and raised in Kolkata and Bangalore respectively, and never having lived in Delhi before, the picture of an apartment in my head was of a planned front room or hall which has rooms to the sides forming the bed rooms or a dining space and then a separate kitchen and off course sunlight and air in all the rooms, etc.
There are two types of apartments/houses in the Delhi region. The pre independence ones where the houses are all stuck to each other on the sides. So one house shares walls with the next and hence has no side windows.
You will find these types of houses in all the residential places in Delhi. The front door will open into a hall area and through this you will have to enter the kitchen and through that the bed rooms and there will be a door at the back. It is like a big compartmentalized rectangle.
The second are the newer ones which are only 5-10 years old and are planned and have airy rooms, but are either in places faraway from your work place or are just unaffordable.
The next item is the AGENT. There are rental agencies all over like the Paan shop in each guli. One just needs to have a phone connection and some sort of transportation and lo and behold will open a small shed with a hoarding of so and so rental or so and so properties.
You cannot find an apartment without going through them. Finding a good agent is half the battle won.
What we did is to first select the place we wanted to live in. It had to be near the Husband’s work place. We did not want him to have a long commute each day in the dreaded Delhi traffic. So that was done.
We then asked people in his office to give us names of some trusted Agents. We did get a lot of phone numbers. I spoke to each one of them. Some asked to call back later, some were more forthcoming. Eventually we did get a good agent who showed us a lot of properties.
But the problem was I did not like the concept of living in a rectangle. So even though there was pressure from the agent to commit and we also had a time constraint, we did not give in.
We wanted some more time to look around. This is very important since ultimately one should have some sort of a connection to the place to call a home, even if it is only for a year.
Also it is better to deal with at least three different agents so that one can gauge the average rental amounts in each area.
Ultimately on the fourth day we did see a place we liked. Although we wanted a two bedroom but this cute one bed room was the best place we had seen.
It was walking distance to the husband’s work place (so no hurry to buy a car).
Although the landlords reside downstairs, they are educated and soft spoken also all members pursue a career and so do not stay 24 hours at home and look for excuses to interfere.
The neighborhood is clean; there is a 24 hour neighborhood guard, two parks, a milk booth and some grocery stores nearby. The place is also close to a bus stop and an auto stand.
But we did not commit on the first day. We took time to think and weigh the positives with the negatives. Then we went to the place again and spoke with the Agent and landlord about the water bill, electricity bill, who fixes what, the lease formalities and generally anything I could think about.
At the end of the week, we signed the legal documents. But it is essential to read the documents. The usual norm is that the Agent gets one month rent as commission and the landlord gets three months rent in advance which will be returned to you when you vacate.
Also there is a minimum 11 months lease during which time if you or your landlord decides to vacate or evict, they shall give each other a one month notice.
So one has to be clear in the beginning that this will be possible within the 11 months and the lease papers should say so.
If your landlord is overbearing and you find something disturbing, say so immediately. No one has the right to control you and there are plenty of vacant houses to choose from.
The rental lease document is a very important piece of paper since this is what gets you a gas and a cable connection. This is also an identification paper for a new comer since we do not have a voter ID or a PAN card yet.
After you land here the first things to do is to make a lot of photocopies of your passport and also take as many passport size photos of yourself as possible. You will need them everywhere.
Finally we moved in!
Unlike the West, houses and apartments are not super cleaned before the move in and so even though the landlord’s maid had done a good job, the Delhi dust did leave a lot for us to do.
So the husband and I wrapped our noses in kerchiefs and began spraying and brooming and brushing and sanitizing.
The gas connection was surprisingly swift. So was opening a bank account, where this guy from HDFC came to our hotel room (ask to see his ID of course before letting him in) and gave me my pass book etc that same evening.
The cell phone connection was quick too but the plans require another blog page.
We finally had a postal address in New Delhi….
Next up FURNITURES…..
