Renting in Chennai
Could anyone tell me why renting a new apartment in Chennai is a Herculean task? For the last two weeks my wife and I have been calling numbers in several different classifieds sections of newspapers, trolling Sulekha.com and making calls to chronically elusive brokers. In fourteen days we have only been able to see three houses--and two of those houses we had to visit twice because the broker forgot the key.
On top of all that, half the people in Chennai have ludacris requirements. Here's a sampling of a few standard questions I've been asked so far: Are you Married? Are you a vegetarian? Are you the executive of your own multi-national company? If I were ever to answer no, the person on the other end immediately hangs up after offering the measly excuse "I'll get back to you."
So in the last week I've verified with my wife that we did indeed get married, dropped meat from my diet and founded my own sweatshop supplying cheap undergarments to western outlet stores. Next I fear they are going to ask if I am a professional wrestler.
To top it all off people here ask for a standard deposit of 10 months rent. Add a brokerage fee on top of that (for all the labor the had to put in hanging up on you and losing keys) and it's pretty close to a year up front just to get an entry level apartment. And don't even ask about getting interest on the three thousand dollar deposit--it's your free gift to the landlord.
The whole thing makes me sick.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Labels: rent
posted by Scott Carney @ 10:11 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
scott,
depending on where u want to live in madras, i would recommend get the local sunday paper.. i am not talking hindu or indian express.. every place has a local paper, look at that... brokers r the biggest scam artists like everywhere else.. the best way, is liking hunting for apartments close to campus in US.. drive a bit and look around. i know if u want a house in t nagar or gopalapuram thats not gonna happen, but somewhere a little off the city u can easily get one.
This brings back memories of house hunting in bangalore. Apart from being a vegetarian and married - i had to be a bhramin, have a husband working in an MNC, possible not work in one myself since that would mean I would obviously return late from work and entertain strange guests in my house. Oh and did i mention...that it had to be an arranged marriage...how can the wife be from bombay and the man from chennai I was asked - Do the parents know you'll are married...
I nodded in agreement to what ever she asked :)
Wait till you have to get the deposit back, so much fun.
My Bangalorean landlord arrived with an empty check, and the claim that I was to get only 80% of an 11 months deposit back since I was "leaving". After 1h arguing and me calling some indian friend posing as a lawyer I gave up on the last few ruppies we were still arguing about.
Brings back the memories, atleast I was lucky in getting back the deposit.
Try out in some of the new apartment complexes on ECR road :-)
Best of luck.
Yes, some requirements are silly. But - the smell of fish or meat cooking can be offensive to vegetarians, if the landlord lives below you for eg., as many Indian houses are built. Even in apartments, there is often a tacit agreement between owners not to rent to non-veggies for this reason. It is troublesome, and I udnerstand its worrying for you, but people do have the right not to want these smells if it affects them.
And 10 months deposit is standard in India, not specific to Chennai. If you have a good rental agreement, you do get it back in decent time.
hey scott,
sorry to read about your ordeal.
yes you will find lots of such
discrimination in chennai (and most
of the other cities). i guess you
just have to keep trying until you
find someone sensible. i am not sure
why people are justifying this with
smell and such filmsy. non-veg
cooking can be done without any smell
go outside. regarding married vs.
unmarried, type of work - what can i
say ? we indians are quite
parochial. unfortunately law and
order has much bigger problems to
look after - so don't expect any
support from the legal system.
Too bad... you are on your own on
this.. keep trying..
Good luck !
- Divya
Divya - not a question of "justifying". As I mentioned clearly, many of the questions are silly. However, to tell a vegetarian, that non-vegetarian cooking can be done without smell, is weird. What may not be "smell" to a non-veggie will be/could be perceived as such by a veggie. I was only pointing that out, since it may not occur to a non-veggie. I am not sure if all comments here are meant to be "yes, yes" types, in which case little point in having a comments section, na, what say?
Dear Divya,
so I guess, to put your question another way. If I move into a place and my landlord who lives downstairs smells really bad I can kick him out of his house?
India gets stranger and stranger every day.
s
we indians are quite
parochial. unfortunately law and
order has much bigger problems to
look after - so don't expect any
support from the legal system.
as a landlord, i have little or no support from same legal system also. hence, i'd rather have no tenant than some troublesome goondas. i try to filter using what may seem odd conditions to you, but makes sense to me based on experience - like, bachelors are badly behaved, tenant needs to have good steady job, etc. so no need to apologize for all indians.
How about building a own house instead of living in a flat?....Got a piece of land on OMR in Chennai...call me if you are interested.
Naresh
9884135495
East or west discrimination is same everywhere. I am not trying to justify what happens when you try to rent in chennai. Just listing some of the parallel's i have witnessed in USA
1) Urban areas in USA are mostly populated by african amercians. Real estate agents are known to discreetly encourase african american to look for areas in urban homes
2)White americans are hesitant to buy a previously Indian owned home or live near a indian restaurant because of the curry smell.
3)You can be evicted by your landlord for any arcane reason.(just because you put up a religious symbol in front of your house)
Hey Scott,
you are only living in the house.. if you feel finding a house is a problem, make sure its only the tip of iceberg..
the bigger problem will come up when you will be planning to leave the house...
"You are leaving the house without a notice" - even though you would have informed a month earlier as the agreement says.. most owners want 3 months notice.. they believe in word of mouth they say..
"I will deduct the money for colouring the house from you deposit" - as if he didn't get any interest on the deposit or the rent was not an income on the house, at all...
"You have damaged the cupboard, windows.. blah blah.." - as if the owner would have kept the house in the same condition for 20 years had he lived there...
and lot of other things you would here when you are leaving... and not to forget that you would also be losing a significant chunk of your deposit..
It happens only in India... :D..
I dont see how this is different from other places. The same damn thing happens in france also where the owner always cribs that something or the other is damaged and tries to siphon off some of the deposit(which is again a good 6 months there). And if the owner is a woman, dont even think of trying to challenge her. Before you know it you will be in jail on cooked up sexual assault charges and cursing yourself.
scott, i presume that you have not lived in bombay!!!! if chennai is herculian, bombay is (herculian)^100
Whoever that sick person apu is, I just would like to say that it is people like you who bring the whole country down. Discrimination to the core. You people literally run on it. When given a chance to go abroad you all go gaga but at that time you would certainly not think about the smell of their non veg cooking!! Would you? Of course not. You would rather eat instead. Suck it up and go get a life!
Scott,
You are still not adjusted to Chennai life after all these years?!
Try renting a place in New Jersey, you will know what discrimination actually means. (especially if you are non-white)
-Sendil
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