Finding the digs
Written By: ruchi
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Sep•
14•12
We are trying to find a place to live for more than 6 weeks now and we still don’t have a lease. The main issue is that we want to rent a place with large bedrooms so that we can use it as a work place too. I think one needs that in a joint family so that they can have their own quiet time without being claustrophobic. However there are not that many homes with large bedrooms here in Noida. When we search on the web or talk to the brokers they tell us that the place is x sq ft but actually that’s including the super area (area in front of the lobby, balconies etc.). Exclude 30% of the area, I am told, to get to the carpet area. So a 2500 sq ft area is actually only about 1750 sq ft area.
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There are independent houses available with larger carpet area but they have their own problems. First and foremost is the safety. Even the people living in these houses say that it’s not that safe. When they go out of town, they deploy a private guard to take care of the property. The second problem is that we don’t want to live on the ground floor because of the mosquitos and dust and first or second floors are not an option because our parents cannot climb the stairs. The third minor issue is that these houses don’t present enough opportunities to make friends easily as opposed to an apartment complex.
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So we are back to finding a suitable apartment. We found only 2 apartment complexes in Noida, which have good room sizes. We actually signed a lease for a huge pent house, gave the advance and the security deposit. Landlord even asked us to select the colors of the walls as it was getting painted and I was so excited when he allowed us to get a couple of accent walls done. We were so happy to have found a good (though expensive) place to stay only to realize that the water pressure in the showers is less than optimal. We complained to the landlord, who lives in US but by then he was so fed up with the slow pace of maintenance work in the apartment that he just gave up. Before we could blink, he decided to sell the house and promptly cancelled the lease and returned the deposits. Yeah ;-( It took us two weeks to close the deal and we are back to square one. We were already dreaming of dance parties on the top floor with discotheque lights and loud music, oh well ;-(
Later on we came to know that the landlord actually rented it out to someone else for more money after signing the lease with us and depositing our check. Clearly he values money more than his promises. God bless his soul.
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Anyways, our container has arrived in Mumbai and will be in Delhi very soon. We are frantically searching for another apartment. Have narrowed down an apartment but for some reasons, closing the deal seems to be taking a long time. Not sure what’s wrong, is it our expectations or people are just slow, need to figure this out. Hopefully it will work out fine. Will let you know when it’s party time 😉
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