Welcome!
You reached this website because you are in the real-estate market searching for a home, or because you are specifically searching for a property with Icon Homz. Well, it is your hard-earned money and you are free to invest if you wish to do so, however, be sure to read this article to keep some points in your mind while investing. We only intend to create awareness about the builder Icon Homz. Our intention is not to alarm you, but to ALERT you to the pitfalls of investing in their project. BEWARE!
Well, as the name suggests, they do CON. They mention that themselves, “I CON”! Jokes apart, the value of our hard earned money nosedived after we invested in their project – Icon Happy Living in Kammasandra/Hebbagodi. From day one, we have been battling a plethora of issues. These range from faulty structural design, leaking windows, cracked walls & seeping ceiling. Don’t get us wrong when we say, cracked wall or seeping ceiling. You have to see it to believe. Some of these cracks are minimum 1-2 centimeters at some places. No kidding!
see photos cracks
Our intention from this review is to ALERT and make AWARE potential buyers to the after effects of investing in their projects.
So, let us start one area at a time. What is the first step in construction? Well, you guessed it right! An approved layout plan! And no, we do not have one!
Even though Icon Homz has almost finished construction, but they have changed their layout plan so many times the first buyers have a different approved plan and the recent one some other. We have reasons to believe that the current building and layout PLAN is UNAPPROVED with MULTIPLE DEVIATIONS.
This is a project under BMRDA, and not BDA/BBMP, so you get OC from the Hebbagodi CMC. That should not be a problem. But there are so many deviations that a clean OC will be hard to come by in case BBMP takes over this area. Just for example, parking lots! They have created parking lots everywhere! We feel it is not Icon Happy Living, but rather Icon Parked Living. In fact, there are some places where a car cannot enter, while in some others you cannot open the door once you park. And yes, these are allotted parking, and no amount of requests elicits a favorable response, other than they will bet back to you, which they will not.
Now, let us move to the next area of construction, Foundation. Pillars or Beams are added to a structure to ground it and bear the load of the structure. Icon’s engineers are such dimwits that they added pillars once the entire building was constructed. No, I am not kidding, see pictures below.
There was no piling done for adding these pillars. There is also no clarity why these were added. Questions only lead to beating around the bush, like our GM visited the site and he saw more spacing between pillars, so he asked them to add more pillars. So, just like that they have added more pillars! Any builder worth his salt will not add pillars unnecessarily due to so many factors including costs. But Icon Homz wants us to believe that they have done a charity without any compelling reasons.
Now, let us go to the next topic of doors. Yes, they did provide door frames, but in some houses, these were loose. Meaning, there was no mortar or cement packing around these. Almost in all houses, the floor tiles are not properly laid out. They have skimped on cement here also, which means cracked tiles. We have taken up these issues with the builder a number of times, but apart from assurances and half-hearted attempts, we have seen no improvement or any real efforts to correct these. We have had multiple meetings with the builder team, but nothing concrete has ever emerged. Be sure to check this yourself while you are on a site visit!
Well, they have messed up on all counts. You can take any area of construction and will find that the builder team has goofed up everywhere, be it parking, swimming pool, play area or the clubhouse. At best this is an amateur builder masquerading in the garb of an accomplished builder. There is total absence of project oversight. Twice the boundary wall has collapsed, but the management has not learnt their lessons.
Currently, the residents are up in arms against the club house. The builder promised a multi-storied multi-utility clubhouse, but now is building a Mangalore Roof Tiled ground floor party-hall. They have shifted all other amenities, like gym, play area, etc. into the parking lot of residential blocks. It is not because they wanted to give bigger gyms or better play area, but because due to their flawed construction they added additional pillars after construction finished to the Phase-2 blocks, and now these parking spaces is unusable due to these pillars, so they are trying to pass off these unusable spaces as amenity areas. Imagine a mere 900 square feet gym for 450+ flats, that too in the parking area. If you exercise you will get sick from the noxious fumes from the vehicles.
The residents have been voicing their concerns about it, but the builder has not paid any particular heed, and just following through with his sub-standard construction. Well sub-standard, because before the residents intervened, there were utility pipes below the pillars of the structure! Imagine in case something went wrong, then you will need to bring down the pillar before you can undertake any repair. This in itself shows the attitude of the builder. They are just completing it for the same of completing, without interest in making sure that is at least constructed scientifically as per civil engineering norms.
If you follow up on any issue, they will say, it is a budget project, there is only this much they can give. Is it a budget project? Really? Considering you pay ‘x’ for a residential unit measuring 700 to 1, 000 square feet, which translates to close to INR 4.000 to 5, 000 sq feet, which puts it under a medium project, and not budget. Only the attitude of the builder is budget, but the pricing is premium.
So, BEWARE!