Booking a flat is the biggest cheque most families in Ahmedabad will ever write. Yet most buyers walk into a site office with no list, get shown a beautiful sample flat, and sign a booking form the same afternoon. The questions to ask a builder are not complicated — but they are easy to forget once the conversation starts.

This is the list we would want our own family to carry. It is written for a first-time buyer in Ahmedabad who has shortlisted a project and is days away from paying a booking amount. These are the questions to ask a builder when buying a new home in Ahmedabad, whether the project is ready to move in or still under construction. Every question below is one you have a legal right to ask, and a serious builder will answer all twenty without hesitating.

Legal & RERA questions (1–4)

Start here. If the legal answers are wrong, nothing else matters — not the amenities, not the price, not the view.

1What is this project's GujRERA registration number?

This is the single most important of all the questions to ask a builder. In Gujarat, any project on more than 500 square metres, or with more than eight units, must be registered with the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority (GujRERA) before it can be advertised or sold.

Ask for the number, then check it yourself — the portal is public and free. You will see the sanctioned plan, the approvals, the promoter's other projects, quarterly progress updates, and the completion date the builder has officially committed to. That filed date is often different from the date the salesperson quotes. Believe the filed one.

2Is the land title clear, and is the land mortgaged?

Builders often raise construction finance by mortgaging the project land to a bank. That is normal. What is not normal is hiding it. Ask directly, and ask for the title clearance certificate from the builder's advocate and the encumbrance certificate, which lists every loan or legal claim registered against the property. If the land is mortgaged, ask for a written no-objection certificate from the bank releasing your specific flat.

3Do you have all approvals from AUDA or AMC?

Depending on where the project sits, it will be approved by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) inside the city limits, or the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) in the growth areas around it — Bhadaj, Shela, parts of the S.P. Ring Road belt. Ask to see the sanctioned layout and building plan, and confirm the number of floors being built matches the number approved. Extra floors added without approval are a real risk in fast-growing corridors.

4Is 70% of collections kept in a separate account?

Under RERA, a builder must deposit 70% of the money collected from buyers into a separate bank account, to be used only for that project's land and construction costs. It exists to stop your money funding a different project. Ask which account your cheque goes into, and always pay by cheque, NEFT or RTGS to the registered project account — never in cash, and never to a personal account.

Price & hidden-cost questions (5–9)

The price on the hoarding is almost never the price you pay. These five questions turn a quoted number into a real one — and they are the questions to ask a builder when buying a new home that most buyers skip.

5What is the total, all-inclusive price?

Ask for one number that covers everything, and ask for it as a written cost sheet. Then read the cost sheet line by line. In Ahmedabad, a flat advertised at ₹50 lakh can comfortably reach ₹56–58 lakh once every charge is added. Knowing the real figure early decides your loan amount, your down payment and whether the flat is actually within budget.

6Carpet area or super built-up area?

This is where buyers lose the most money without realising it. Carpet area is the usable floor space inside your flat — the area you could actually lay a carpet on. Super built-up area adds your share of the lobby, staircase, lift and common spaces, and is typically 25–40% larger.

RERA requires builders to price and sell on carpet area. Many Ahmedabad projects still quote areas in square yards or as super built-up in their marketing, which is not illegal in a brochure — but the carpet figure must appear in your agreement. Ask for it in square feet, in writing, before you pay anything.

7What charges come on top of the base price?

Ask for this list explicitly, because these rarely appear on the first quote:

• Floor rise charges — a per-floor premium for higher floors.
• Parking — covered, open or stilt, and whether it is allotted in writing.
• Club or amenity membership — often a one-time charge separate from the flat price.
• Maintenance deposit and corpus fund — usually 12–24 months of advance maintenance.
• Electricity and water connection charges, meter deposits and legal or documentation fees.

8How much GST, stamp duty and registration will I pay?

These are government charges, not builder charges — but they are your money, so they belong in your budget.

• GST applies only to under-construction flats: 5% without input tax credit, or 1% for homes that qualify as affordable housing. A ready flat that already has its completion certificate attracts no GST at all.
• Stamp duty in Gujarat is 4.9% of the property value, plus 1% registration. Women buying in their sole name get the 1% registration fee waived; the 4.9% is the same for everyone.
• Stamp duty is calculated on the higher of your agreement value or the government's jantri rate (the state's minimum valuation for that area), so ask which one applies to your flat.

9What is the payment schedule?

Most under-construction projects use a construction-linked plan: you pay in stages as slabs are cast and finishing progresses. Ask for the full stage-by-stage schedule in writing, and ask what interest you are charged if you are late with an instalment — then ask what the builder pays you if they are late. Those two numbers should match. Under RERA they are meant to.

One firm limit worth knowing: a builder cannot collect more than 10% of the flat's cost before executing and registering an agreement for sale. If you are being asked for 20–30% on a booking form alone, that is not standard practice — it is a breach. You can work out what each stage means for your monthly outgo on the Laxmi Group EMI calculator.

Questions about the home itself (10–13)

10Can I see the sample flat and my unit's floor plan?

See the sample flat, but read it carefully. Sample flats are often built without the internal walls that will exist in your home, and furnished with smaller-than-standard furniture to make rooms feel larger. Ask two things: is this sample flat built to the exact carpet area of the unit I am buying, and can I see the approved floor plan for my specific flat number and floor?

11Which brands and materials are used?

Ask for the written specification sheet, and ask it to name brands rather than adjectives. "Premium fittings" means nothing; a named brand of tiles, sanitaryware, wiring, plumbing and door hardware means something you can check. Also ask about the structure — the grade of concrete and steel, and whether the building is designed for earthquake resistance, which matters in Gujarat's seismic zones.

12Which amenities are included, and when will they be ready?

In large phased projects, the clubhouse and pool are sometimes completed years after the first residents move in. Ask which amenities are included in your price, which need a separate membership, which phase each one is built in, and what the monthly maintenance will be once they are running. A big amenity list is also a big maintenance bill — ask for the estimated per-square-foot monthly charge.

13What about parking, water, power backup and fire safety?

Ask how many parking spaces come with your flat and whether the allotment is written into your agreement — verbal promises about parking cause more society disputes than almost anything else. Then ask about the water source (municipal supply, borewell, or both), whether there is a treatment plant, what backup exists for lifts and common areas during a power cut, and whether the project holds a valid fire NOC from the fire department.

Possession & agreement questions (14–17)

Everything in this section comes down to one rule: if it is not in the registered agreement, it does not exist. Brochures, WhatsApp messages and site-office promises are not enforceable. The agreement is.

14What possession date goes into my agreement?

Ask for a specific date — day, month and year — and ask to see it printed in the draft agreement before you pay. Compare it against the completion date the builder has filed with GujRERA. If the two differ, ask why, and trust the filed date.

15What do you pay me if possession is late?

Under RERA, if a builder misses the agreed possession date, you can either withdraw and get a full refund with interest, or stay in the project and claim interest for every month of delay. The rate is set by the rules — currently the State Bank of India's highest marginal cost of lending rate plus 2%. Ask the builder to point to that clause in your draft agreement. A builder who has delivered on time before will show it to you without flinching.

16Can I read the agreement before I pay?

Yes, and you should. Ask for the draft agreement for sale as a soft copy, take it home, and have a property advocate read it. Budget a few thousand rupees for that review. On a purchase of ₹40 lakh or more, it is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy. Any builder who will not share the draft before taking your money has answered a different question entirely.

17What happens if I cancel?

Life changes, and loans get rejected. Ask exactly what the cancellation clause says: how much of the booking amount is forfeited, how long the refund takes, and whether GST and stamp duty already paid can be recovered. Get the answer in writing before you pay, not after.

Questions about the builder's track record (18–20)

These are the questions to ask home builder representatives that no brochure can answer for you. A builder's past is the best available guide to your future.

18Which projects have you completed and handed over?

Note the wording: completed and handed over, not launched. Ask how many projects, over how many years, and how many of them were delivered on the originally promised date. Then ask to visit one that has been occupied for five years or more. New buildings all look good; a five-year-old building shows you the quality of the concrete, the waterproofing, the plumbing and the lift maintenance.

19Can I speak to residents of a project you delivered?

This is the most useful question on the entire list, and the one builders are least prepared for. Residents will tell you in five minutes what a brochure cannot say in fifty pages: whether possession was on time, whether the promised amenities arrived, how repairs were handled, and whether the society handover went smoothly. A confident builder will happily introduce you. Even without an introduction, you can visit a delivered project and simply talk to people in the lobby.

20Who handles repairs after possession?

Ask about the defect liability period — under RERA, a builder must fix structural defects and poor workmanship reported within five years of possession, at no cost to you. Ask who to call, what the response time is, and when the building is formally handed over to the residents' society along with its accounts and the maintenance corpus.

How to verify the answers yourself in Ahmedabad

Asking is half the job. Checking is the other half, and in Gujarat all of it is free and public.

1. Search the project on GujRERA. Go to gujrera.gujarat.gov.in, open Project Search, and enter the project name, the promoter name or the registration number. You do not need an account. Check the registration validity, the approvals, the filed completion date and the quarterly progress updates.
2. Look up the promoter's other projects on the same portal. A promoter with several projects showing repeatedly extended completion dates is telling you something.
3. Check the plan approval with AUDA or the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, depending on which authority covers the location.
4. Have an advocate run a title search at the sub-registrar's office and confirm the encumbrance certificate.
5. If something goes wrong later, GujRERA takes homebuyer complaints online under the Citizen section — a Form A complaint goes to the Authority, a Form B complaint to the Adjudicating Officer, depending on whether you are seeking completion, a refund or compensation.

Do this before you pay anything. It takes about twenty minutes, and it independently confirms the answers to the most important questions to ask a builder on the list above.

Extra questions for a ready-to-move flat

If you are buying a completed flat rather than an under-construction one, some of the questions to ask a builder above matter less — and four new ones matter a great deal:

• Do you have the BU permission? Building Use permission is Gujarat's version of the occupancy certificate. Without it, the flat is not legally fit for occupation, and getting a home loan, a legal electricity connection or a clean resale later becomes difficult.
• Has the society been formed and handed over? Ask who currently runs maintenance, and whether the corpus fund has been transferred.
• Are there any pending dues on the flat — maintenance, property tax or electricity?
• How much of the defect liability period is left? The five-year window runs from possession, so on a resale flat you may be inheriting only part of it.

If you are still deciding between the two, our guide to ready-to-move vs under-construction apartments covers the price, tax and risk trade-offs in detail.

Documents to ask the builder for

These documents back up the answers to the questions to ask a builder above. Ask for copies of all of them, and take them to an advocate together rather than one at a time.

Frequently asked questions