Go more than once, and look at different things each time. A building tells you most about its quality while the structure is still open, long before the paint and the sample flat furniture arrive.
This guide sets out an under-construction flat checklist stage by stage, and covers what the law still lets you claim after you move in.
Key Takeaways
- Visit at three different stages. Each one shows you something the next one hides.
- Builders must post quarterly progress to the regulator, so you can check what you saw against what they filed.
- Defects in workmanship or quality can be reported for 5 years after possession.
- The builder then has 30 days to fix them, at no charge to you.
- Snag the flat before you sign the possession letter, with the lights on and the taps running.
What Should Be on Your Under-Construction Flat Checklist?
Three things, at three moments. Check the structure while it is still visible, check the finishing before it is covered, and check the flat itself before you accept the keys. Each of those windows closes when the next stage starts, which is why one visit at the end never covers it.
Most buyers do the opposite. They visit once, late, when the sample flat is furnished and the corridor is lit. That visit tells you about the marketing, and very little about the building.
A family moving up from a 2 BHK is usually buying into a taller building than they have lived in before. More floors mean more lifts, deeper foundations, longer water runs and more that is hidden behind plaster. That is worth a second look.
Why Visit the Site More Than Once?
Because each stage hides the one before it. Once plaster goes on, you cannot see the blockwork. Once flooring goes down, you cannot see the slab. The window for looking at any given thing is short, and it does not reopen.
Time your visits to the build. Go once while the frame is going up, again when plaster and plumbing are in, and a third time just before handover. Those three visits show you three different buildings.
Go on a weekday morning when work is actually happening. A Sunday morning site visit is easier to arrange and shows you a quiet site with nobody working.
Ask the site office when the next slab is due, or when plaster starts on your floor. They usually know within a week or two. That tells you when to come, and it also tells you whether anyone on site is willing to talk to a buyer.
What Should You Look At While the Structure Goes Up?
The parts nobody can change later. Columns, slabs, beams and the basement are the bones of the building, and they set what the flat will be like in ten years. Everything after this stage is finishing, and finishing can be redone. Bones cannot.
Start with the concrete surfaces themselves. Honeycombing, which is the rough gravelly patch where concrete did not fill properly around the steel, is worth asking about. So are visible cracks in a young slab, and steel left exposed to the weather.
Ask how long slabs are kept wet after pouring. Concrete gains strength while it stays damp, and a site in a hurry during a Gujarat summer is a site worth asking questions of.
Find out who checks the work, and how often. Large projects usually have a third party testing concrete and steel, and the reports exist in writing. A builder who can show you one is telling you something about how the site is run.
The basement and the lift pit are worth a look for standing water. A pit that is wet during construction rarely dries out on its own. Whatever is getting in will still be getting in after you move. Then ask what the drainage plan is.
What Changes Once Plaster and Finishing Start?
The building stops being readable. This is your last chance to see where pipes and conduits run before they vanish into the walls for good. Once the plaster is on, a leak behind it becomes a guess, and the guessing is done with a chisel.
Walk the flat with a phone torch. Tap the plaster and listen for a hollow patch. Run your eye along the gaps where a window frame meets the wall, and look at the slope in each bathroom.
Ask to see the waterproofing before tiles cover it, especially in bathrooms and on the terrace. In Ahmedabad the real test arrives with the first heavy monsoon in July, which is usually after you have moved in.
This is also the moment to check where the electrical points are going. Conduits are chased into the walls now, and moving a switch afterwards means breaking plaster. Walk each room with the layout in your hand and picture the furniture. A bedroom point behind the wardrobe is easy to move this week. Find it after you move in and the fix costs you a wall you have already paid to finish.
Judge the doors and windows against the weather they will meet. Look too at what the building shares with you in lifts, water and open space. A west-facing window in Chharodi or Gota takes a different beating from an east-facing one, and cheap hardware shows up in the first summer.
How Do You Snag a Flat Before You Accept It?
Room by room, with the power on and the water running. Snagging means listing every defect before you sign the possession letter. Your position is strongest while the builder still wants that signature, and it weakens the moment you give it.
Take three hours and a written list. Open and close every door and window, then run every tap and flush every toilet. Switch on every point, including the ones behind where furniture will sit. Do it in daylight if you can. A torch was the right tool in an unfinished shell, but finished surfaces read differently under a bulb.
Check the flooring for hollow tiles by tapping along each row, and watch for a change in sound partway across a room. See that the electrical points match the layout you agreed. Measure a room or two against the plan, and check the figure against the carpet area you were sold.
Photograph everything you find, with the date on. Then hand the list over in writing and keep a copy.
Some builders will ask you to sign first and trust them to fix afterwards. You can agree to that if you want the keys, but do it with the list already delivered and acknowledged. A dated list handed over before signing is worth far more later than a complaint raised from memory.
Which Papers Should Match What You See?
The ones the builder files every quarter. Promoters must keep a project page on the regulator's website and update the status of the project every quarter. That gives you a written record to hold against your own eyes, filed by the builder, dated, and public.
Look up the project on the GujRERA portal and read the declared stage of work. If the filing says the structure is complete and you are standing in front of an open frame, that gap is the conversation.
Two more worth pulling. The sanctioned plan, approved by the local authority, tells you what was permitted. Across much of this belt that authority is AUDA. The occupancy certificate, which the promoter must obtain, tells you the building is fit to live in.
There is also a money trail. Seventy per cent of what buyers pay must sit in a separate bank account for construction and land cost. The builder may withdraw from it only in proportion to how much of the project is finished.
What Does the Law Give You After Possession?
Five years to report defects, and thirty days for the builder to fix them. This is the part most buyers do not know they have, so it goes unused. It sits in the Act itself, and it applies whatever the builder's own warranty says.
The Act is specific. It covers "any structural defect or any other defect in workmanship, quality or provision of services". You have "a period of five years" from the date possession is handed over. After that notice, "it shall be the duty of the promoter to rectify such defects without further charge, within thirty days" (RERA Act, 2016).
Read what that covers. It is wider than cracks in a wall. Workmanship, quality and provision of services are all named. A lift that keeps failing sits inside the same clause, and so does plumbing that was never right.
Your snagging list matters here too. A defect you recorded at handover, in writing, is far easier to pursue two years later. One you first mention when it worsens is a harder case to make.
One more line is worth knowing. The Act says the promoter's responsibility for a structural or other defect "shall continue even after the conveyance deed" has been executed. Handing over the building to the residents' association does not end the clock on those five years.
The Under-Construction Flat Checklist, Stage by Stage
Set each stage against what only that stage will show you. Print this, or keep it on your phone, and take it with you on every visit. The middle column is the part that disappears, and the right column is the question worth asking while you are standing there.
| Stage | What only this stage shows | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Structure going up | Concrete finish, steel cover, slab cracks, basement water | How long are slabs kept wet? |
| Blockwork done | Wall alignment, opening sizes, shaft positions | Where do the service pipes run? |
| Plumbing and conduits in | Pipe routes, bathroom slopes, waterproofing | Can I see the waterproofing before tiling? |
| Plaster and flooring | Hollow plaster, level floors, frame gaps | Which rooms were done first? |
| Before handover | Every door, tap, switch and tile | Will you fix this list before I sign? |
| After possession | Monsoon leaks, lift reliability, settling cracks | Have I reported this in writing? |
Three well-timed visits can cover all six rows. Each row closes for good once the next one starts.
The Short Version
Visit three times. Look at the structure while you still can, look at the plumbing before plaster hides it, and snag the flat before you sign for it. One visit at the end shows you paint, and paint is the easiest thing on a site to get right.
Write down what you find, with photographs and dates. That list is what turns a complaint into a claim, and the law gives you five years to use it.
Want someone to walk a site with you and point out what to look at? The Swarnim Group team is happy to come along.
Frequently Asked Questions
Three visits cover it: once while the structure is going up, once when plumbing and plaster are in, and once just before handover. Each stage conceals the one before, so a single late visit misses most of what matters.
Snagging is listing every defect in the flat before you sign the possession letter. Do it with the power on and the water running, room by room, and hand the list over in writing before you accept the keys.
Yes. Defects in workmanship, quality or services can be reported for five years from the date possession was handed over. The builder then has thirty days to fix them, at no charge to you.
Promoters must update the project status on the regulator's website every quarter. Read that filing on the GujRERA portal, then compare it against what you saw on your last visit.
If you can, yes. A civil engineer or an architect will read a slab or a plaster finish faster than you will. A second pair of eyes also catches what the first one misses.