Let us begin at the end! To be more precise, let us begin by my giving you news about the happy conclusion of the first episode of this saga that I have chosen to entitle “Living in Goa”. So ta-da…I am in possession of the apartment keys!!
So how did it go? Was it easy/difficult exhilarating/frustrating, slow/prolonged? I have much to write and so I have decided to do a series of short posts, otherwise, not only would I end up producing an extremely lengthy, past expiration date, insipid entry. Even worse it might also be incomplete - since the longer it takes to write the story, the more likely I am to forget many of the details. Now, ideally speaking, I should have been taking notes when this story was unfolding and should have used those notes to write it but given that I had a lot of running around to do I didn’t really have the time to write then and as I was carrying a lot of other luggage (more on that later) I left my laptop behind. So no computer - no notes – the good old pen and paper, somehow, did not inspire. But fret not, I do have a reasonably good memory and with the added benefit of the hindsight I am unlikely to leave out the important bits. So here is the story -
So how did it go? Was it easy/difficult exhilarating/frustrating, slow/prolonged? I have much to write and so I have decided to do a series of short posts, otherwise, not only would I end up producing an extremely lengthy, past expiration date, insipid entry. Even worse it might also be incomplete - since the longer it takes to write the story, the more likely I am to forget many of the details. Now, ideally speaking, I should have been taking notes when this story was unfolding and should have used those notes to write it but given that I had a lot of running around to do I didn’t really have the time to write then and as I was carrying a lot of other luggage (more on that later) I left my laptop behind. So no computer - no notes – the good old pen and paper, somehow, did not inspire. But fret not, I do have a reasonably good memory and with the added benefit of the hindsight I am unlikely to leave out the important bits. So here is the story -
Act One: Before the Departure
I am not going to bore you with the mundane details of acts that go with the preparation of any journey but I think it is necessary to put on record the special preparations (including the thought process) that entails taking possession of an apartment especially when it is situated in a city far away from one’s primary residence and is likely to be used as a second/holiday home.
Lets begin with the easiest - the documentary proofs. Now these may differs in specifics in each case but the general drift would be the same. I would record here the exact documents I required in my own case – for a new apartment that falls under the municipal limits of Municipal Corporation of the city of Panaji, Goa.
The builder’s office informed me towards the end of December 2010 that my apartment was ready for possession and in addition to the last instalment due towards the construction cost I needed to pay the infrastructure tax, electricity meter charges and one year house tax to them so that they can forward that to the government. As far as the documents were concerned I would need to carry with me a notarised photocopy of my voter identity card, a recent passport size photograph and the income tax registration document- or, as it is known in India, the Permanent Account Number (PAN) card. A scanned copy of the last mentioned had to be sent by email ahead of my journey to Goa. Furthermore, I was required to give them an advance intimation of my willingness to visit Panaji for paperwork at least 8 days before arriving at their office in Goa.
Now first thing first - I needed a notarised photocopy of my voter’s ID card. I dreaded the thought of standing in long lines at my neighbourhood district court, but then I remembered that a mini-market near the court had many shops where the notaries sat, so it was not going to be that difficult, I tried to assure myself - though quite unsuccessfully. So budgeting for half and hour to one hour of queuing time I took the original and the photocopy of the voter’s ID card to this market on a Monday afternoon in the last week of December 2010. I had expected that after the weekend the rush would be more than usual and consequently I approached the market with some apprehension. It had begun to drizzle slightly and perhaps, the rain was my saviour, or was it the afternoon siesta hours, I don’t know, but when I reached the market I found no crowds there. I approached the first shop, a person sitting there wore a bored expression and I expected him to shoo me away to some other shop but when I told him that I wanted a photocopy notarised. He extended his hand, I gave him the photocopied page and he rapidly stamped it and made a pen mark on, which, only with some vivid imagination could be construed as his initials. I had in the meanwhile taken out the original card from my wallet, which I expected him to thoroughly inspect, but to my surprise or should I say, utter shock, he did not even glance at the original card even when I shoved it under his nose. He had still not declared his fee so I asked him and he mumbled – ten rupees. I handed him the money happily and a little sceptical of the authenticity of the document I rushed back home, the creases on my forehead had begun to vanish – the dreaded task had turned out to be much too easy.
The builder’s office had also asked me to transfer one percent of the value of the apartment to their account towards the stamp duty that would be payable towards the “agreement for sale.” This agreement had to be executed on my arrival in Goa. Let me emphasize here that this agreement between the builder and the buyer is the legal embodiment of the intent of the builder to sell and of the buyer to buy. It is often executed at the time when the initial booking to buy an apartment/house made, but on assurance from my real estate agent, I had not bothered about it as it would have entailed visiting Goa much earlier. Now this can be a fatal mistake, in the absence of an agreement for sale if something goes wrong one has no legal document that is easily admissible in court. Thankfully nothing had gone wrong in my case and I justified my (in) action by taking shelter behind the argument that all payments I had made had been through a cheque and had receipts from the builder acknowledging receipt of money towards construction of a certain apartment at various stages of construction. Also, I had a letter from the builder, which is often known as the “allotment letter”, wherein it is stated that the builder has provisionally allocated a certain apartment in the given project in my name and intended to hand it over to me on completion as long as I make the required payments. So in the worst case scenario, I had enough documents to prove that I had been paying instalments to my builder for the purchase of a house and if for some reason he is unable to deliver the apartment I should at least receive my money back.
Having cleared that up, I guess, I must also point out that the transaction with the builder is not complete till another document - the “sales deed” is not signed. If the ‘agreement for sale’ is the first step of legal interaction in the builder buyer relationship, to the best of my knowledge the sales deed is the final step, for it is the legally registered proof of the final sale and transfer of ownership. My builder told me that execution of that deed would only be possible once a residents (owners) cooperative society is formed for my apartment complex. The transfer of ownership can actually be made in my name only as a member of that society. Now that sounds logical since technically speaking the land on which the apartment complex stands is jointly owned by all the residents. So as of date while I do have possession of the apartment the sales deed is still pending and in all probability it would take a few more months before the final agreement can be signed (which would also entail payment of more stamp duty to the government).
Getting back to my preparation, the builder’s office forewarned me that I required 8 clear working days to effect the agreement for sale, which meant that I needed to be in Goa for at least 10 days (as 8 working days was bound to include a weekend). I scanned my probable dates in mid January to check for any upcoming public holidays, there were none till 26th January; so keeping a liberal margin for contingencies I decided that a 15-day trip inclusive of travel time was warranted. Despite this cushion of extra 5 days I was, nevertheless, apprehensive that some glitch will develop (what do you say – paranoia of the highest order?!) Somehow, I had misgivings about the state of readiness of the apartment. My apprehension was that on inspection I would not find the apartment to be fit for possession (some construction/repair would be found pending) and I would be forced to postpone taking possession for some future date. I guess, I had heard/read enough horror stories that once the builders gave possession of an apartment he washes his hands off all responsibility relating to construction related faults including structural ones. The internet and newspaper linked real estate advisors always counsel us not to take possession until we are completely satisfied with the papers including but not limiting to the plans for electricity, water, drainage, flood control, earthquake, alien insurgency and many more important ones that I don’t recall now. We should also double checked all measurements inside out, checked the roof for leakages, bathrooms for skidding, walls for their tendency to bend over backwards no to please us but to displease us etc.! Yes, I guess its all very fine now for me to make fun of it all when I have the possession, but the fact is that at that point I had asked the builder’s office to send me some photographs and they were taking their own sweet time in doing so and believe it was not helping my paranoid brain one bit. On the other hand, another corner of my brain, I presume where optimism is stored, was assuring me that this was only an apprehension and everything would go as planned and I would get possession a couple of days before the end of the trip. Keeping this scenario in mind the rational part of my (not so split) personality started planning and day-dreaming as to how should I go about equipping the apartment to bring it in a ‘liveable’ state. Now, liveability is not an easy concept of define and it can mean very different things to different people in fact it can mean different things to the same person in different circumstances. It is an issue that I would love to discuss at length and would do so in this blog sometime but in December 2010-January 2011 this subject, more or less, entailed gathering and carrying with me some basic minimum household stuff which included kitchen stuff, bedroom stuff as well as toilet stuff.
I was not planning a permanent change in residence but rather creation of an additional residence from scratch, a residence which would be left behind without anyone to maintain it for months with the date of next visit being subjected to a significant level of uncertainty. So I had to define to myself what I thought was the basic stuff that I and mine would need to set up the second home. What is it that is a ‘must have’ for the modern day living in a second home? Clearly this stimulated the creative juices in the brain but the misgivings that I had mentioned earlier were putting a lid on the excitement that usually accompanies the aforementioned chemical reaction. The doubts continued to linger - what if the paradise stayed illusive – how silly I would feel carrying all sorts of ‘useless’ stuff with me? The majority of ‘to be acquired’ stuff was slotted in the ‘to be bought in Goa’ category but there was still some things that I was planning to carry with me. Stuff that either one did not find in Goa (for example a nice chakala-belan – the basic equipment one requires to make a roti) or which had already been acquired and marked ‘for Goa’(e.g. an induction cooker, that I had brought home in my scientific enthusiasm, was unceremoniously rejected by the kitchen authorities at home, and had been promptly branded as something that was ‘fit for Goa’. Another category of goods that was ‘Goa bound’ belonged to either the ‘duplicates and triplicates’ category or ‘unfit to be presentable’ category. Not surprisingly as everyone at home was trying to help out in this endeavour even collecting the rejects generated some controversy. One of the shareholders (read - family member) at some point found my excitement for even this stuff a little too churlish and annoying and remarked that my gathering stuff at home was giving an impression of someone planning a division of family property. Another stakeholder felt that the most logical course of action would have been to wait until the next time when uncertainty about the possession would not be there. On a rational level I agreed (though our reasons differed substantially but to be honest I was also a little excited about equipping the new apartment and didn’t want to postpone everything for the next time on the basis of unfounded apprehensions. It seemed such a waste of time, energy and effort to plan a trip already compromising on its principal objective.
The dilemma was not just about whether to equip the apartment at this stage or not but also about how to equip it. If the décor of ones house is a physical expression of how one wants to live then one surely needs to take into consideration both the dreams and the constraints one has. One of the predicaments that my daydreaming world had to resolve was whether to go for cheap and functional or the minimalist elegant aesthetic and probably expensive given that the second house by definition is sparingly used. Of course, if elegant and aesthetic could be wedded with inexpensive and functional the dilemma would resolve itself but in my experience this fortuitous combination seldom occurs.
Somehow, grappling with the above stated dilemma I couldn’t and still can’t help but think about this in terms of what does a man really need for living at both the prosaic and the sublime level. There is almost a stereotypical (natural?) middle class guilt built in my system relating to the luxury of a second home. In some perverse way, I cannot help thinking about one of Lev Tolstoy’s story – how much land does a man need? As the story goes, at the end of the day all you need is 6 yards (and if one believes in cremation not even that!) In other words the ‘business of living’ throws up many issues, which forms an inherent theme of this blog. I would soon enough have more to say on that.
I wish to cover one last issue in this entry. Before I left for Goa, I had to arrange for a place to stay in Goa – hopefully for the last time. Of course, the easiest way would have been to search the net for hotel-deals and pick up one that was reasonably priced and close enough to the apartment. But clearly we all know arranging for accommodation is never that easy. The auto generated M.C.Qs began to test my brain and my patience once again! Should I book close to the apartment or close to the registrar’s office, where I feared I would spend a disproportionately large time, or still nearer to the builder’s office? The location was not the only issue for me to look into; I also dreaded the thought of eating the hotel food, 3 meals per day for 15 days. Now a 15-day sojourn by my standards is not too long but not a short one either. I have done it before when I was forced to, but I am not getting any younger and somehow could not ‘stomach’ the idea of surviving on the hotel food for my entire stay. To add to the degree of difficulty, I am a very poor cook and can make very limited dishes (if I can dare to use that word for my concoctions at all), but still, I felt the need to find an apartment or a room with would, at least, give me an option of using a kitchen. Suddenly the future – a second home in Goa – seemed to somehow more than compensate for the troubles I was dreading to face during (hopefully) my last stay in Goa outside ‘home’ for a very long time to come if not eternally. So I began to scout the net and the entries in my own diary that I had built up over the last 6 months in anticipation of the builder’s invitation. I began to send out emails; amongst the many misses one hits had potential. Although it was not located close enough to the apartment it was at a bus-able distance both from the business centre of Panaji where the builders office as well as the registrar’s office were located and the apartment. It was a 2 bedroom flat with an equipped kitchen and thus understandably came with a price tag higher than what I wished to pay. I bargained a little and decided to electronically transfer a token payment on the Sunday night about a week before I was to leave. But a technical glitch stopped me. Next day I got a reply to one of my initial scouting emails – once again it was a 2 bedroom apartment but it came with the right price tag. So for Rs. 500 per day I was able to book a 2-bedroom apartment situated in the business district/market of Panaji. This deal also made one of the stakeholders at home doubt the sagacity of buying an apartment given that one could be had at this price for rent! Sagacious or not, I had little doubts about the decision - the warmth of a finalised travel arrangements was rapidly dissipating many of the doubt inducing clouds. Those that remained were face very strong winds soon enough – but that is a story that would unfold only in my next entry.
Lets begin with the easiest - the documentary proofs. Now these may differs in specifics in each case but the general drift would be the same. I would record here the exact documents I required in my own case – for a new apartment that falls under the municipal limits of Municipal Corporation of the city of Panaji, Goa.
The builder’s office informed me towards the end of December 2010 that my apartment was ready for possession and in addition to the last instalment due towards the construction cost I needed to pay the infrastructure tax, electricity meter charges and one year house tax to them so that they can forward that to the government. As far as the documents were concerned I would need to carry with me a notarised photocopy of my voter identity card, a recent passport size photograph and the income tax registration document- or, as it is known in India, the Permanent Account Number (PAN) card. A scanned copy of the last mentioned had to be sent by email ahead of my journey to Goa. Furthermore, I was required to give them an advance intimation of my willingness to visit Panaji for paperwork at least 8 days before arriving at their office in Goa.
Now first thing first - I needed a notarised photocopy of my voter’s ID card. I dreaded the thought of standing in long lines at my neighbourhood district court, but then I remembered that a mini-market near the court had many shops where the notaries sat, so it was not going to be that difficult, I tried to assure myself - though quite unsuccessfully. So budgeting for half and hour to one hour of queuing time I took the original and the photocopy of the voter’s ID card to this market on a Monday afternoon in the last week of December 2010. I had expected that after the weekend the rush would be more than usual and consequently I approached the market with some apprehension. It had begun to drizzle slightly and perhaps, the rain was my saviour, or was it the afternoon siesta hours, I don’t know, but when I reached the market I found no crowds there. I approached the first shop, a person sitting there wore a bored expression and I expected him to shoo me away to some other shop but when I told him that I wanted a photocopy notarised. He extended his hand, I gave him the photocopied page and he rapidly stamped it and made a pen mark on, which, only with some vivid imagination could be construed as his initials. I had in the meanwhile taken out the original card from my wallet, which I expected him to thoroughly inspect, but to my surprise or should I say, utter shock, he did not even glance at the original card even when I shoved it under his nose. He had still not declared his fee so I asked him and he mumbled – ten rupees. I handed him the money happily and a little sceptical of the authenticity of the document I rushed back home, the creases on my forehead had begun to vanish – the dreaded task had turned out to be much too easy.
The builder’s office had also asked me to transfer one percent of the value of the apartment to their account towards the stamp duty that would be payable towards the “agreement for sale.” This agreement had to be executed on my arrival in Goa. Let me emphasize here that this agreement between the builder and the buyer is the legal embodiment of the intent of the builder to sell and of the buyer to buy. It is often executed at the time when the initial booking to buy an apartment/house made, but on assurance from my real estate agent, I had not bothered about it as it would have entailed visiting Goa much earlier. Now this can be a fatal mistake, in the absence of an agreement for sale if something goes wrong one has no legal document that is easily admissible in court. Thankfully nothing had gone wrong in my case and I justified my (in) action by taking shelter behind the argument that all payments I had made had been through a cheque and had receipts from the builder acknowledging receipt of money towards construction of a certain apartment at various stages of construction. Also, I had a letter from the builder, which is often known as the “allotment letter”, wherein it is stated that the builder has provisionally allocated a certain apartment in the given project in my name and intended to hand it over to me on completion as long as I make the required payments. So in the worst case scenario, I had enough documents to prove that I had been paying instalments to my builder for the purchase of a house and if for some reason he is unable to deliver the apartment I should at least receive my money back.
Having cleared that up, I guess, I must also point out that the transaction with the builder is not complete till another document - the “sales deed” is not signed. If the ‘agreement for sale’ is the first step of legal interaction in the builder buyer relationship, to the best of my knowledge the sales deed is the final step, for it is the legally registered proof of the final sale and transfer of ownership. My builder told me that execution of that deed would only be possible once a residents (owners) cooperative society is formed for my apartment complex. The transfer of ownership can actually be made in my name only as a member of that society. Now that sounds logical since technically speaking the land on which the apartment complex stands is jointly owned by all the residents. So as of date while I do have possession of the apartment the sales deed is still pending and in all probability it would take a few more months before the final agreement can be signed (which would also entail payment of more stamp duty to the government).
Getting back to my preparation, the builder’s office forewarned me that I required 8 clear working days to effect the agreement for sale, which meant that I needed to be in Goa for at least 10 days (as 8 working days was bound to include a weekend). I scanned my probable dates in mid January to check for any upcoming public holidays, there were none till 26th January; so keeping a liberal margin for contingencies I decided that a 15-day trip inclusive of travel time was warranted. Despite this cushion of extra 5 days I was, nevertheless, apprehensive that some glitch will develop (what do you say – paranoia of the highest order?!) Somehow, I had misgivings about the state of readiness of the apartment. My apprehension was that on inspection I would not find the apartment to be fit for possession (some construction/repair would be found pending) and I would be forced to postpone taking possession for some future date. I guess, I had heard/read enough horror stories that once the builders gave possession of an apartment he washes his hands off all responsibility relating to construction related faults including structural ones. The internet and newspaper linked real estate advisors always counsel us not to take possession until we are completely satisfied with the papers including but not limiting to the plans for electricity, water, drainage, flood control, earthquake, alien insurgency and many more important ones that I don’t recall now. We should also double checked all measurements inside out, checked the roof for leakages, bathrooms for skidding, walls for their tendency to bend over backwards no to please us but to displease us etc.! Yes, I guess its all very fine now for me to make fun of it all when I have the possession, but the fact is that at that point I had asked the builder’s office to send me some photographs and they were taking their own sweet time in doing so and believe it was not helping my paranoid brain one bit. On the other hand, another corner of my brain, I presume where optimism is stored, was assuring me that this was only an apprehension and everything would go as planned and I would get possession a couple of days before the end of the trip. Keeping this scenario in mind the rational part of my (not so split) personality started planning and day-dreaming as to how should I go about equipping the apartment to bring it in a ‘liveable’ state. Now, liveability is not an easy concept of define and it can mean very different things to different people in fact it can mean different things to the same person in different circumstances. It is an issue that I would love to discuss at length and would do so in this blog sometime but in December 2010-January 2011 this subject, more or less, entailed gathering and carrying with me some basic minimum household stuff which included kitchen stuff, bedroom stuff as well as toilet stuff.
I was not planning a permanent change in residence but rather creation of an additional residence from scratch, a residence which would be left behind without anyone to maintain it for months with the date of next visit being subjected to a significant level of uncertainty. So I had to define to myself what I thought was the basic stuff that I and mine would need to set up the second home. What is it that is a ‘must have’ for the modern day living in a second home? Clearly this stimulated the creative juices in the brain but the misgivings that I had mentioned earlier were putting a lid on the excitement that usually accompanies the aforementioned chemical reaction. The doubts continued to linger - what if the paradise stayed illusive – how silly I would feel carrying all sorts of ‘useless’ stuff with me? The majority of ‘to be acquired’ stuff was slotted in the ‘to be bought in Goa’ category but there was still some things that I was planning to carry with me. Stuff that either one did not find in Goa (for example a nice chakala-belan – the basic equipment one requires to make a roti) or which had already been acquired and marked ‘for Goa’(e.g. an induction cooker, that I had brought home in my scientific enthusiasm, was unceremoniously rejected by the kitchen authorities at home, and had been promptly branded as something that was ‘fit for Goa’. Another category of goods that was ‘Goa bound’ belonged to either the ‘duplicates and triplicates’ category or ‘unfit to be presentable’ category. Not surprisingly as everyone at home was trying to help out in this endeavour even collecting the rejects generated some controversy. One of the shareholders (read - family member) at some point found my excitement for even this stuff a little too churlish and annoying and remarked that my gathering stuff at home was giving an impression of someone planning a division of family property. Another stakeholder felt that the most logical course of action would have been to wait until the next time when uncertainty about the possession would not be there. On a rational level I agreed (though our reasons differed substantially but to be honest I was also a little excited about equipping the new apartment and didn’t want to postpone everything for the next time on the basis of unfounded apprehensions. It seemed such a waste of time, energy and effort to plan a trip already compromising on its principal objective.
The dilemma was not just about whether to equip the apartment at this stage or not but also about how to equip it. If the décor of ones house is a physical expression of how one wants to live then one surely needs to take into consideration both the dreams and the constraints one has. One of the predicaments that my daydreaming world had to resolve was whether to go for cheap and functional or the minimalist elegant aesthetic and probably expensive given that the second house by definition is sparingly used. Of course, if elegant and aesthetic could be wedded with inexpensive and functional the dilemma would resolve itself but in my experience this fortuitous combination seldom occurs.
Somehow, grappling with the above stated dilemma I couldn’t and still can’t help but think about this in terms of what does a man really need for living at both the prosaic and the sublime level. There is almost a stereotypical (natural?) middle class guilt built in my system relating to the luxury of a second home. In some perverse way, I cannot help thinking about one of Lev Tolstoy’s story – how much land does a man need? As the story goes, at the end of the day all you need is 6 yards (and if one believes in cremation not even that!) In other words the ‘business of living’ throws up many issues, which forms an inherent theme of this blog. I would soon enough have more to say on that.
I wish to cover one last issue in this entry. Before I left for Goa, I had to arrange for a place to stay in Goa – hopefully for the last time. Of course, the easiest way would have been to search the net for hotel-deals and pick up one that was reasonably priced and close enough to the apartment. But clearly we all know arranging for accommodation is never that easy. The auto generated M.C.Qs began to test my brain and my patience once again! Should I book close to the apartment or close to the registrar’s office, where I feared I would spend a disproportionately large time, or still nearer to the builder’s office? The location was not the only issue for me to look into; I also dreaded the thought of eating the hotel food, 3 meals per day for 15 days. Now a 15-day sojourn by my standards is not too long but not a short one either. I have done it before when I was forced to, but I am not getting any younger and somehow could not ‘stomach’ the idea of surviving on the hotel food for my entire stay. To add to the degree of difficulty, I am a very poor cook and can make very limited dishes (if I can dare to use that word for my concoctions at all), but still, I felt the need to find an apartment or a room with would, at least, give me an option of using a kitchen. Suddenly the future – a second home in Goa – seemed to somehow more than compensate for the troubles I was dreading to face during (hopefully) my last stay in Goa outside ‘home’ for a very long time to come if not eternally. So I began to scout the net and the entries in my own diary that I had built up over the last 6 months in anticipation of the builder’s invitation. I began to send out emails; amongst the many misses one hits had potential. Although it was not located close enough to the apartment it was at a bus-able distance both from the business centre of Panaji where the builders office as well as the registrar’s office were located and the apartment. It was a 2 bedroom flat with an equipped kitchen and thus understandably came with a price tag higher than what I wished to pay. I bargained a little and decided to electronically transfer a token payment on the Sunday night about a week before I was to leave. But a technical glitch stopped me. Next day I got a reply to one of my initial scouting emails – once again it was a 2 bedroom apartment but it came with the right price tag. So for Rs. 500 per day I was able to book a 2-bedroom apartment situated in the business district/market of Panaji. This deal also made one of the stakeholders at home doubt the sagacity of buying an apartment given that one could be had at this price for rent! Sagacious or not, I had little doubts about the decision - the warmth of a finalised travel arrangements was rapidly dissipating many of the doubt inducing clouds. Those that remained were face very strong winds soon enough – but that is a story that would unfold only in my next entry.
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