Security threat at Sterling Shalom

Hi,

As I wrote in my previous post, security is one of the most important issues for the residents of Sterling Shalom. In the post, I just sited it as one of the issues that is of concern to all of us. Today, ill write in detail as to what all is happening in Shalom and how the Sterling management has chosen to ignore even the gravest of matters.

As you know, Sterling Shalom doesnt have a main entrance gate. Nor does it have a proper compound wall. To refresh your memory, here are the pics :

Main entrance :

Left of the apartment entrance. Compound wall not constructed :

  Right of the entrance. Compound wall made using aluminium barricades:


So thats the current state of things at Shalom. 

Some days back, there was a burglary at Sterling Shalom. Thankfully the Security guard was alert and he caught the thief while he was escaping with the valuables. Imagine, if the security guard didnt notice, the thief could have easily escaped from any(many) of the exit points. You might have noticed that the aluminium barricades are not even properly fixed. There are so many gaps!! Wonder why Sterling wasted their money in this. They could have just done without it...and saved some money!!Anyway, it is not serving any purpose.

Apparently, the resident of the flat complained to Sterling Management regarding this and the answer that he got from the official was that he will pay him the money that was stolen!! How much more rediuluos can it get!!. We have heard about so much crime in the city where people have taken advantage of the fact that only chidren and female members are at home during the day and caused damage to life and property. What if something more serious happens. Does Sterling have the capacity to return back anything and everything that's lost!

I also noticed a few more things. The opening in the compound wall leads to another piece of land which has been used by workers working in adjoining areas, as an access route to their workplace. They have been doing so even before Sterling Shalom was constructed and continue to do so even now. I.e they use Shalom entrance and opening in the compound wall to go to their workplace. Approximately 25-30 workers every day get into the apartment and go out using the main entrance. When the security guard asks them to not use Shalom entrance, they argue and say that they have been doing it from years together and if we are so concerned, why dont we get a wall constructed!! Two Security guards cannot anyway get into a brawl with a huge group of people. They might just get beaten up...so they have decided to let things be the way they are. The Sec guard tells me..'madam...why dont u ask the sterling authorities to get the main entrance gate and compund wall done. Tomorrow if something wrong happens, everyone will blame us only'. ' Fair enough', I said and came back. Basically i didnt have anything to say. What should I tell him. Should I tell him that we all have been  calling/mailing sterling authorities every 2nd day and expressing our concern...but they have just chosen to ignore it. They dont answer our mails. If we call them, they say that they will do something but they dont. They had even told us that they will send an official every 15 days to review the work progress ( which is happening at snails pace at shalom) and meet the residents to address their concerns.But no one has till date done that!! I must say, they are quite good at making false committments. 

Someone very correctly said. ' experience teaches everything'.Everytime we meet them , they assure us so many things and we come back with the hope that since we have got the committment from the highest authority, something will surely happen. But now, we have completely lost confidence in these guys. 

They are nothing more then a BUNCH OF LIARS.

All the residents want to meet the Highest authority in Sterling, But the concerned person is not ready to meet people in groups!! He says that he will meet individuals ONLY, else he will not meet!! They say...customer is the king. Wonder where Kings are treated like this!!!

All the people who have booked flats in Shalom are in a dilemma now as to what is it that can be done. 

People who are reading this post : If you have faced such a situation with any builder...and have taken any action which could yield some results, please let us know. 

 

A trap by Sterling

Dear Friends,
This is one of the unfortunate occupant of Sterling Shalom and we have been duped from left and right by sterling shalom. Yes one thing they have done and given the connection of water and electricity. Yaaa before i should forget let me mention, they are very geneous to provide water such that they have ensured water will be provided from every where, that starts right from your bedroom walls to parking spaces.

Who ever is interested (the current residents are excused) to see the great amenities, please come over here and i would show you and i am sure you would be pretty impressed. But here "Conditions apply". Unfortunately they are nice and great to see but right now only on paper and poster. Never mind, they are honest and do not deny to do this but we need to just wait for some time, may be our grandchaindren would definitely avail these coming amenities.

This is just a trailer and please have patience to see the full picture, from time to time. For the time being, let me take a break. Yaaa, sure i would post you the next trailer after some time.

Thanks and regards
-Sushant

We got fooled by Sterling developers

All the people who have booked a flat in Sterling Shalom....I empathise with you. 

Those who plan to book a flat in STERLING SHALOM....my warning...DO NOT MAKE THAT MISTAKE!!. Lemme tell you why.

We booked a flat in Sterling Shalom in 2006. We saw a couple of properties and thought that this one will be just appropriate for us. The price was good, Sterling promised us a swimming pool, club house, a gated apartment complex with childrens play area and beautiful landscaping and small water bodies in the apartment complex. We thought that for people like us who are  basically not from Bangalore...it will be just ideal as it would give us an opportunity to have a good social living, a good standard of life and group of friends. For our son, we thought, as he would grow, he would like to go out and play with his friends. We heard so many stories of crime in the city and thought that  if we stay in an apartment, we will not have to limit him to the 4 walls of the house . It would give us the flexibility to allow him to play outside and be assured that  it would be completely secure . Our child can be within the boundries of the apartment ..and at the same time enjoy the amenities like childrens play area, club house and the swimming pool. So.. these were our dreams when we booked the flat. We saw a couple of flats at a cheaper rate also but  thought that it would be worth paying a premium to stay in a apartment built by such a REPUTED builder like Sterling Developers.

This flat was supposed to be delivered in Dec,07. Sterling was supposed to finish off all the work in the apartment by then and hand it over. But till date, work is on at Shalom. Somehow, we managed to take occupancy of our flat by Aug,08...but everyday we are bearing the disturbance caused due to workers working all the time in the apartment..not to mention the noise of drilling machines, vehicles etc...which are a part of everyday life in Sterling Shalom.

Sterling marketed the Shalom project by saying ''Sterling Shalom- peace comes home''. I, as a resident of Sterling Shalom can pledge that there couldnt be a more untrue statement than this!!

So, here is what was promised by Sterling Developers.

...and here are the deliverables :

Lets start with the main entrance

You see a proper levelled road leading to the apartment complex. Sterling did promise us that, they will level the approach road. Like many other commitments made by Sterling Developers ( about which i've written below), this was not done. This is how the approach road looks like :

So u see this is a kacha road. Thankfully it is not raining these days so we are saved. When it rains, the road becomes extremely bad...and given that work is still on at Sterling Shalom, there is lot of movement of heavy vehicles like trucks etc, the road becomes extremely bad. Sterling has not cared to make the road proper...nor have they finished the work at the site so that the residents are relieved of the pain of the bumpy ride.

You might have noticed in the pic above that there is no entrance gate. Dont be too surprised. This is just the start of all the weird things that Sterling has done in this project. Here is one more pic :

With no entrance gate, you can imagine how secure the apartment is.How much can 2 security guards sitting at the entrance do, if a group of hooligans try to get access through the main entrance!! All the residents have requested Sterling multiple times regarding the concern over security and dog menace but it has always fallen on deaf ears. 

You might be thinking that atleast the apartment will be having a proper boundry wall...if not the entrance gate. Fair enough...we also thought that this is the bare minimum that any builder should do. Not true for Sterling developers. The boundry wall is a combination of concrete wall, open area and aluminium barricades!! Dont be too surprised. Here are the pics :

Actually now we have started feeling that there is actually no need of an entrance gate if the boundry wall is going to be like this. Burglers need not necessarily make the theft and escape from the main entrance. They can choose from the multiple options : 1. Main entrance 2. Open boundry wall 3. Aluminium barricades ( u might have noticed that the barricades are not even properly fixed. It has so many openings !! )

On asking, Sterling management says that they have got into a litigation with another party who owns the land adjoining Shalom. The party says that their property will get land locked if sterling makes a boundry wall for Shalom. Hence, Sterling decided to compromise the security of the residents and keep it open. I wonder, how a reputed builder like this, who has executed so many projects before this, can make such a mistake. Before, selling 110 flats , didnt they feel the need of resolving all these issues and then make it ready for sale. Even if they couldnt resolve these issues, couldnt they be transparent enough and be open enough to inform their prospective customers so that they take an informed decision. Anyway, these are all ethical issues and we have started feeling that this is too much to ask from Sterling.

But the fact remains that depite paying so much extra to stay in Sterling Shalom, the residents are not enjoying anything they paid for. So, the security aspect is completeley ruled out.

Sterling developers has even forgotton what is called Humanity. The nights, if not the days, are quite cold in Bangalore in December. Sterling has not even bothered to provide a proper place to the security guards who are doing their duty day and night at Sterling. Have a look at the place where these poor guys sit and bear all this shit from Sterling :

Next come the swimming pool, beautiful ladscaping, water bodies, club house and childrens play area. Be ready to be shocked to see the below pics :

Here is the swimming pool and club house :

Yes...swimming pool and club house dont exist in Shalom. Sterling developers have till now sold flats in A and B blocks. C & D havent been sold. They are now saying that till C and D ( total 110 flats), dont get sold, there will be no swimming pool or seperate building for the club house. We understand , due to economic downturn, there is almost no sale of properties. Hence if the project is half done, we are ready to accept it. i.e if the builder is not making C & D blocks, it is completely understandable. But what stops them from making the club house and the swimming pool!! I dont think, Sterling developers, who is launching new projects like Sterling Villa Grande and selling each villa in crores, is not having the money to make a club house and swimming pool in Shalom!!!

Next comes the childrens play area. Here is what is called the childrens play area in Sterling Shalom :

There are 110 flats in A & B and 110 flats more to be added ( in C & D blocks). Assuming , there is one child in each house, there will be atleast 220 children who will be using this play area. Imagine kids standing in a queue everyday and fighting amongst themselves to get ONE chance to get on to the swings!! Also, look at the land. It is not levelled and have deep holes too!! Which parent would like to send his/her child to such a play area...from where their child will sure come back injured!!! Regarding this issue also, people have asked Sterling to add more swings and alot more land to the play area. But...as usual...sterling says YES for everything ...but does NOTHING.

Lets now come to the finishing part...as in the presentability...the look and feel of the apartment complex. I must say that any local builder can surely do a better job than Sterling when it comes to this. Take  a look at these pics :

Now comes the basement car park :

So, here is the grand entrance of the car park provided by Sterling :

You see, there are no markings made and it looks quite dirty too. To add to this, there are many leaks and seepages in the basement car park. Take a look :

In addition to this, there is whole lot of open wiring in the parkimg area. Wonder when they plan to cover them. Have a look at this too :



You can imagine how unprofessional sterling guys are by what im going to tell you now. All the residents had been asking sterling to do the car park alottment and unlike other demands, Sterling agreed to do this. And...this is how they did it. Yes, parking was alotted. Instead of making proper markings, they sent an executive who took a piece of chalk and marked the parking lots!!! Have a look at this :

 I  took these pics just 3 days after the 'alottment' and i could just find 1-2 places where the markings were slightly visible. Rest has already got erased. Im sure, if i go there today, I wont even find this. Am i lucky or what ;-)

Apart from all this, Sterling has not bothered to put the door numbers on all the flats. See this one. No door number on the door of my flat. Now, the courier guys have also got tired of asking us to put the door numbers else our important posts might get lost :

Now take a look at this one. It says, 'break glass in case of fire'. Fact is that the glass has not been fixed...or has it already broken!! wonder what it is :

............and the issues are endless. If i go about writing more...im sure i can continue doing that for hours together and still they wont end. 

Ill conclude by saying that while we have lot of anger towards Sterling for not delivering what they promised, at the same time , we feel very sad having invested all our hard earned money into this. At the risk of not getting customers who might be ready to pay a good price for our flat ( later, if we plan to sell it ), i would strongly reccomend people to be very very careful while investing in a property with any builder ...especially Sterling Developers. You are welcome to post your comments and suggessions.

-Padmini

Beware of Sterling Developers

A Sterling Sham

Okay!!, Its the downturn, Property prices are stagnating, The Banks are getting ready to offer you a tease rate on your home loan, Bangalore is the place you wanna live, You need an apartment with decent amenities that your pocket can afford.

All of these things were true 2.5 years back for me and many more folks who booked their flats around the same time, some folks got the property they purchased while others did not, we the residents of Sterling Shalom fall in the second lot. What we got instead was an apartment complex that has been incomplete and is going to stay that way for the next five years

The promise was for:

This is what they have delivered, Need I say more!!!:

Welcome to Sterling Shalom

This weblog is created to publish information and status of construction of Sterling Shalom Apartment Complex at whitefield.

The idea of starting this weblog is to post all the information/documents and any other related material that is relavant to the people who have booked an apartment at the Sterling Shalom.

Soon photographs of the Present Construction site will be posted here.

There is also a yahoo group "sterlingshalom · Residents of Sterling Shalom " . Please signup to this yahoo group if you have booked an apartment in the Complex.

What's more if you have some information you would like to have published on this website, Please feel free to email me at manish.palaparthy@gmail.com