Many underestimate the underlying costs of the apartments and houses but they are often busy with the arrangements of the capital costs, bank loans, EMIs and the other arrangements for acquiring the home. But the buyers often forget that these underlying expenditures immediately after the possession of the home also pertains to a great proportion of the budget. It has been often seen that these costs like the maintenance charges, charges of shifting, decoration and alteration, buying fixtures and furniture are few of the immediate requirements. Among all these the most pertinent and a recurring one is the maintenance charge which is somewhat like a rent and is a perennial expenditure.

What is meant by maintenance cost?

Maintenance charges are the costs borne for the proper up keep of the house or the apartments which of course increases the livability quotient of the dwelling unit. This cost is the cost that’s to be incurred for keeping the house or the residential unit in proper condition and working order.  This is a well-known fact that if a house is well maintained then the sale value of the house is likely to be higher. The maintenance charges of course differ from the kind of the project you have your dwelling unit in. If it is a super luxury unit with all luxury amenities like swimming pool, gardens, landscapes, gymnasium and others then the maintenance charges are likely to be higher. But if the amenities are of the basic standards like an elevator and a car parking area then the charges are likely to be lesser.
The market watchers and the expert realtors say that country wise the maintenance charges should not be more than an average of Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2000 per month. This maintenance charge of course varies according to the number of the amenities that has been provided. The worst part of this is that a resident of such an apartment has to pay the maintenance charges.

As the number of services in the apartment increases the maintenance charges increases proportionately. The reason is simple. If there are swimming pools, gardens, playing fields and children’s play area along with parks and lawns the maintenance charges are bound to increase. The reason is that the facilities call for extra maintenance requirements with salaries of people and equipment maintenance which has to be borne by the residents themselves. This obviously calls for more maintenance charges as the number of amenities is high.

The developers opine that often the agreement of sale does not include this and the buyers has to be careful about this and has to enquire with the developer at the onset of the deal itself as to an estimate of the maintenance charges.

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Is there a role of the locality where the apartment is situated?

Locality, says the experts plays a vital role in deciphering how much the maintenance charges will be. How much will it differ is entirely dependent on the on the housing society and what are the amenities they have in the community. The charges are apportioned based on the built up area one has in one’s disposal.

Tips to the customers:

What should the customers do is a pertinent question asked by many. In answering that the Expert Developers and head of big development firms opine that the customers should do a comparative analysis. In many cases it is seen at the primary stages or at least for the five years this maintenance is the duty of the builder or is done by the developer. There are few developers who also does fair amount of business from this maintenance of flats and apartments. So the market watchers caution that the customers should look at the price of the apartments, the split up of the payments, the tenure and the maintenance charges and then should go with a particular developer.

15 Responses

  1. SAIRAM

    Dear Sir,
    I am staying in an apartment in Bangalore. When a flat is rented out who has to pay the maintenance charges? Is it the owner of the flat or the tenant?

    Reply
  2. Harinath Reddy

    Usually while buying flat many people forgot to discuss about the maintenance charges and later at the time of possession, they will come to know about the these hidden charges and they will struggle and blame the builders.

    Reply
    • Kumar

      I experienced the same, when I booked a flat I didn’t know about these hidden charges, but at the time of agreement they were asking me about the maintenance charge for five years, but I didn’t agree for five years, I just agree to give only for 2 years. and later come to know some builder are giving first five years free maintenance offer. but it was too late.

      Reply
  3. Anitha

    You are given the exact meaning of maintain ace cost. And the tips given for customers are very nice. To avoid maintenance we have to follow more tips.

    Reply
  4. Sunder

    When we are staying in rental house or in a flat they are collecting some amount as a maintenance charge which is hidden at the time of joining. So we have to be active while entering into flat, we need to ask about maintenance charge and enter into agreement then we can reduce some amount.

    Reply
    • Hariharan

      At the time of booking a flat only you should ask about the maintenance charges you don’t wait till the agreement process because many builders are offering free maintenance for 3 to 5 years. So be aware about this otherwise you have to pay extra amount.

      Reply
  5. Srinu

    We can say maintainance cost is like a hidden cost. To escape from this we have to follow these tips.

    Reply
    • John

      Maintenance charges vary from builders to builders and even cost of your flats also. That’s why you just go through this article before going to buy a flat you can get discounts and negotiation in maintenance charge.

      Reply
  6. Manvitha

    Everyone should aware of maintenance charges in apartments, and need to reduce these charges before entering into that apartment. To do this these points will help us more. Thank you for posting nice tips.

    Reply
  7. John

    It nice tips how much important to know the maintain charger and how to calculate the maintenance charges. Many customers initially don’t know about these charges latter, they will struggle so that’s before going to buy a flat just gone through this article.

    Reply
    • Pandey

      Yes Mr.John you are right, many owners and builders are hiding these charges first and later they will collect that money by irritating tenants. So If we follow these tips we’ll escape from these struggles.

      Reply
  8. Debendra Sethi

    I heartily thank you guys to be provide such a wonderful knowledge about maintenance cost at apartment.

    Reply
  9. Sunil

    There are few developers on the real estate market who are not demanding the maintenance charges. So by showing the we have to demand others to stop this.

    Reply
    • Vishwa

      Hi Sunil sir, can you me the details of developers those who are not demanding maintenance charge it will helps us lot and we will buy homes from them.

      Reply
  10. Pooja

    Everywhere the apartment owners are taking maintenance charges other than the rent, water & electric bill. To reduce/ avoid this we have to follow some tips. This article is useful to deal with them.

    Reply

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