Do you get your promised quality?

You zero in on a development which meets your requirement, fits your budget. You then proceed to raise a loan, garner all your savings and pay for the apartment. It is a proud, satisfying moment when you walk into the Sub Registrar’s office to make the apartment legally yours.

But move into your finished apartment and you realise to your dismay that your residence is anything but satisfying. For, the quality of construction is a far cry from what you had bargained for. You find that cracks and leaks are now part of your life. You learn to contend with bad tiling in bathrooms, leaking sewage pipes, badly aligned doors and windows, and discoloured flooring, amongst an endless list of complaints.

You try to hold the developer accountable only to be told that his liability ends after one year of handing over the apartment complex. When attention is drawn to the promised quality, fingers are pointed towards subcontractors.
Penalty clause

The penalty clause for the subcontractor is again to the tune of one year after completion which means that he is not accountable beyond the one year period. This means the customer pays for the apartment at the current exorbitant price only to be delivered questionable quality with no place to appeal or find recourse.

If developers insist that top priority is given to ensure quality construction, why then are developments increasingly coming up with substandard quality. This is true with not just small builders who are yet to make an impact but with established and highly reputed developers.

Gopal V, Senior Vice-President Projects and Planning, Prestige Group says, “materials like cement, steel, and finishing materials like granite, tiles, sanitaryware are supplied by us to ensure quality. We have developed a series of checklists with a quality control audit system, besides backward integration. Site engineers are assigned to monitor workmanship.”
Reasonable controls

Perhaps the developer has in place reasonable quality controls. A surprising factor is that a few developers have managed to deliver quality to the extent of leaving customers with very little to complain about. Says Guru Prasad, Joint Managing Director, Chaitanya Projects, “While the main structure is subcontracted, finishing part of the construction is done by our own labour contractors. While detailed monitoring is done to ensure quality compliance, our approach is extremely focused on the project in execution. The volume of our projects is kept at manageable proportions to enable higher levels of supervision. But the clinching factor is the level of commitment that successfully eliminates questionable quality.”

Syed Beary, Managing Director, Bearys Group says, “quality can be delivered only when approached with a conscience and commitment. It is also dependent on how you manage to extract quality work from the subcontractor. In a boom time, the volume handled is extensive and given the time constraint, enough focus is not paid to quality and this leads to substandard workmanship. Shortage of skilled labour adds to this. Being proactive limits this occurrence” Perhaps boom time and high volumes add to low quality of constructionPerhaps the scenario may change making quality mandatory with customers gaining the upper hand to dictate it.