This is the crux of the story - ask them for the commencement/completion/occupany certificate of the project you are buying.
We got to know about Shravanthi Shelters through CREDAI expo. We wanted to invest in their upcoming project Shravanthi Paramount - even though this particular project was their first ever "big" project we decided to go ahead just for the cost reason.
Before doing the booking we asked numbers of their previous customers, with hesitation they gave 1 number. We insisted we needed more so they gave one more.
The talk with previous customers were neutral. They were neither satisfied nor distressed.
We were told we need to make the sale agreement within a week of booking, But we said that’s not possible and we need atleast 2 weeks time. They didn’t want to give us enough time to verify their papers and were keen in pushing the flats to us. Due to our insistence they agreed for 2 weeks time.
So we gave booking advance of Rs.1 lakh with post-dated cheque for verifying the papers. But their MD Santhosh Balakrishna insisted that he wants current date cheque. After lots of argument and getting a note written by him -claiming they’ll return the booking advance within a week if our lawyer doesn’t approve their project.
5. Now when our lawyer asked for commencement certificate they said they haven’t yet laid the columns so they aren’t able to provide. We asked to atleast give the CC, completion and occupancy certificates of their previous projects for which there was no response.
I got to know from my friends and well as the internet that the CC, OC papers are very important. We spoke again to their customers who had no idea about these papers, Now these are educated people, I’m talking about!
We backed from the project and asked to refund our booking advance. Since then they are not responding to calls and emails.
Please be aware of these small builders as you can have trouble re-selling the properties without these papers.
Do proper background check on these guys - demand for the papers.
https://blogs.rediff.com/thebravepedestrian/2011/06/16/before-you-pay-any-money-to-a-builder-get-copies-of-the-following-documents/
https://jagoinvestor.com/forum/importance-of-commencement-certificate
https://archive.deccanherald.com/Deccanherald/jun242005/realty837272005623.asp
P.S: We are getting our papers ready right now to file a case against them in the consumer court.