This experience is of hunting for a house in mumbai on rent. Well its common knowledge that rents in mumbai are the highest in the country (considering comparing it across all other metros is enough), and thats exactly the reason why even owners with sub standard houses are expecting a mine full of green paper from tenants.

Brokers and Landlords work in tandem to raise the prices every year. In fact what really happens is that , most of the houses on rent can only be rented through brokers. Now comes the worst part, owners expect say X amount from their houses . What some brokers do is , forge a deal with the owner saying i will surely get you X ( X itself is pretty high !) but in case i get anything above X ill keep that share out of the rent for the next 11 months. So , the broker gets you the booty which you want and he keeps anything hes able to achieve above that. This is one of the reasons why prices keep soaring.

Another reason for high prices – the borkerage, which usually ranges from 1 to 1.5 months rent. So, higher the rent, higher the brokerage thus burning a hole into the tenants pocket.

A word of caution though : This experience is limited to Andheri and surrounding areas and was limited to only 2 months of hunting for livable spaces which were fully furnished (Though me and my flatmates also saw many unfurnished and semi furnished places as well).

We tried to do something different when we were out hunting, we asked the broker to get us a good deal and fix the brokerage before hand . But he was not the one to fall into our trap. While we wanted the best deal , he was too concerned about making money. Reason : Demand has outstripped constricted supply in this overly congested city of mumbai.

Another reason is that some of the landlords keep their houses vacant so that some inexperienced idiot comes along and pays them a stupidly high sum which had no corelation to the plush (haha plush !!) house he/she got.

We were looking for some good 2 BHK fully furnished houses in Andheri East area (rents varying from 28K to 45 K) and infact in the end got one house which we all liked but the demand for rent was huge ….wasnt fitting our budget. Infact it dint have ACs , TV and Sofas but owner agreed to out them in for total package of 29 K but when we said we dont need ACs he said the reductyion in rent would not be in same proportion to increas ein rent .  We gave in as we had to move in quickly or else we wouldve found ourselves on the street .

Now when we took our stuff to move in we were suprised to find an idiot standing between us and the house askinmg us to produce the permission from the Managing committee of the Society for moving in. We were suprised , asked our broker and the owner about this stupid demand of his. They had no clue . We were stranded with all our stuff in front of the society in full throttle mumbai rain and this bugger wont relent. In fact he directed the guard not to allow us in and left on his bike to god knows where.

We finally were allowed to keep our stuff when our broker pleaded with him on phone but werent allowed to move in till we got the Managing committee’s permission.

What perplexed us was that we had Police verification documents with us , the Agreement signed between us and the owner , infact these 2 documents would have sufficed to prove that we were no ruffians who would disturb the tranquility of this society ! I still am waiting to see what the Managing commitee members would add value to in addition to the police verification. In fact ill have to wait for another week to move in as all Managing committee members could not assemble at the same time in a short span of time.

Im so pissed right now that in case they ask me my antecedents , ill make sure i get theirs too recorded in front of me. I also have the right to know whether these managing committee members are fit to live in the same society as mine

This high handedness is unwarranted. Hope people realise that the people in mumbai are known to be cooperative and cordial. This reputation is taking a beating day by day.