Livspace — Flat Interiors

Address:	Cochin, Kerala
Website:	hub.livspace.com

The first briefing about Interior works on 7th Nov 2020 at the Livspace Kochi office. I was in fact drawn by the ambience and pleasing promises of the team. I did get quotes from other interior teams. However considering the proximity, alluring promises and attractive claims in advertisements, I chose Livspace. One major reason was that I wanted to entrust the work with a professional team since I will not be around during the work and I did not want my 62+ year old mother to be in trouble. After the initial conversations I was convinced that there is no need of our frequent interventions at the site. And their site clearly stated that the entire work would be done 100% by in house team, and NO external vendors. Another major promise from the team was that once I make the entire payment, Assembling will only take 7-10 days at the maximum. Hence I planned for my housewarming by March end.

I had booked the team by giving an advance of Rs.20, 000 on November 14, 2020. Then second payment of Rs. 188, 104 was made on Jan 25, 2021. I was told that entire payment has to be made before procuring materials. I had raised my concern about making entire payment before completion of work. Due to delay from HDFC loan processing, my final payment got delayed by 2 days and my designer from Livspace called me to say that upon further delay in final instalment payment, they will charge me rent for storing my manufactured materials. I got panicked as I was already running tight on the financial front and pushed the procedure from the bank side to speed up fund availability. The same team who was about to charge me for storage for 2 days, has been using my flat rooms as their storerooms dumping all work materials and unfinished, unclean wardrobes. We could not occupy the rooms even after we moved into the flat due to the delay from Livspace team.

Once the assembling started, I started getting back to back complaints from neighbourhood flats and Confident office. The workers were so careless and unclean. I travelled to Cochin to pay a visit at the site while work was on and I was shocked to see how badly the site was managed. Hard wastes were piled up everywhere without any kind of floor and wall protection measures taken. Almost all wall edges were broken, my balcony glass door damaged with irreversible scratches, days old food waste was dumped in the balcony. Please find the photos attached herewith.

We insisted on cleaning the site regularly and following hygiene. While the painting and false ceiling work was on, there was cement and white powder wastes everywhere. In my absence at the site, the apartment cleaning staff and neighbours asked the workers to close the doors and carry out the work to avoid dust and powder waste in common area. However, by evening 7.30 pm, I got a call on my phone from Confident group office, complaining about the site issues. Due to the careless handling of workers, whole corridor of the floor and subsequent stairs of 2 floors were full of dust and dirt piled up. My neighbour who has dust allergy issue, raised complaint and I was held responsible being the flat owner. At that late night, my mother had to arrange a cleaning boy from outside, they visited the flat by 9 p m and did the cleaning. It not only incurred cost; the inconvenience caused was much. Later the team started coming up with extra costs other than projected in initial quote. They said false ceiling should be done to facilitate TV positioning – which was not in the initial plan. When I had clearly communicated the expectations and when the team did site validation as well, I am not sure why they could not project such requirements in advance. This resulted in extra costs. Also, the team broken the granite slabs and kitchen tiles that was already there. After me raising multiple complaints, they replaced a few broken tiles – but not the entire broken tiles. They made me get new granite slabs – again shooting up the costs. The team claimed that they couldn’t carry out the work without breaking tiles. This should have been projected at the beginning when they gave the quote and plan. In the entire apartment, interiors works are done by other teams in many flats and nowhere the teams broke the tiles and granites like this. The team was not at all professional.

The wardrobes fixed were too bulky for the rooms of my flat. Livspace claims in their advertisements about space planning made in compact rooms. However, my rooms were made much congested and utility was nowhere factored. Local carpenters would have done better measurements and planning. The team levied designer charges on their plan, but I wonder what kind of design input was there. I have attached the Confident Leo III flat plan given by builder herewith. The same plan was replicated with no extra input, but wrong measures. I could not even fit standard double size bed cots in the rooms because of the bulky wardrobes. When questioned, they said wardrobes come in standard size. It that was the case, why is the team doing site validation and claiming on customisation? None of the wardrobe or TV unit was complete on time. I got tired writing long emails for completion and rectifications. The work table was particularly asked to be made detachable so that I can move it around if needed. The table they fixed is not detachable and they have fixed it to the wall after removing the wall-tile skirting. The wait has been very long.

The workers were all third-party vendors. If you see the Livspace claims, they say that all workers are in-house. Their advertisements are misleading and deceiving. Random workers visited the site on random days and timings with no site supervisor to give instructions. They were all confused and would work 2-3 hours and leave site unclean. We had to clean it every time they messed the site. The Cement and paint wastes were such a pain. I repeated insisted to have a supervisor at site, but the team kept changing accountable people. I was given contacts of multiple people and no one seemed to have an idea about the work. I was disturbed between my work almost everyday in calls, discussions and emails. I insisted on either completing the work as promised or in case the team is incompetent, I wanted them to clear off the site and refund me the amount paid. I had to do my housewarming pooja amidst the incomplete work as there was no sign of completion or commitment to promise. I could not conduct my housewarming function, could not invite guests. Me and my 62+ year old mother had to start living in the work site with cement wastes. For the work they said they would complete in 10 days, its been 7 months. My rooms were made as their storerooms all this while. The damages the team caused in my flat are not yet fixed. And final handing over is not done as on date.

The huge costs, the efforts, headaches, pain and tension are too much to bear further. A flat is my lifetime dream and they have literally spoiled it all. I belong to a normal middle-class family and I am the single earning member. Please help me address this issue and facilitate compensation from Livspace for all the delays, damages, fake promises and untrue advertisements.