Mumbai student housing: missing purchase costs and energy paperwork

There should also be a clean asset schedule. If equipment or contracts are outside the ₹91,430,000, the buyer needs to know the additional cash commitment. If they are inside it, the drafting and tax questions should reflect that rather than treating everything as bare property.
 
Ask the seller to identify all outstanding demands, disputes and notices affecting the property, then have the buyer’s adviser verify what can be verified independently. A promise that everything is paid is not the same as a completion statement allocating responsibility.
 
If purchase funds are coming from outside India, raise that at the start. Don’t assume the residency analysis covers every practical money-transfer or banking question. Ask what evidence and timing the buyer’s bank and local advisers will require.
 
One easily overlooked question: does the buyer have any collection, deduction or filing responsibility connected with amounts paid at completion? I’m not saying one applies here, only that the tax adviser should answer it directly rather than discussing only the buyer’s future capital gain.
 
That distinction is important. The seller’s own capital-gains liability should not simply be added to the buyer’s cost estimate, but any buyer-side procedure connected with payment belongs on the completion timetable. Get both responsibility and cash-flow effect confirmed.
 
For inheritance, give the adviser an actual scenario instead of asking whether the structure is ‘good for succession.’ Who should receive the property, what happens if one owner dies first, and is continuity of the student-housing operation important?
 
And compare succession consequences with the cost of maintaining the chosen ownership vehicle. A tidy inheritance plan on paper may still be unattractive if it adds annual administration that the original budget omitted.
 
The conversation now suggests five separate schedules: completion cash, first-year property costs, ongoing operating costs, exit tax assumptions and succession/administration. That should prevent an adviser’s narrow closing quote from being mistaken for the total cost of ownership.
 
I would send those schedules to both the legal and tax advisers and ask each to mark what they cover, what the other adviser must answer and what depends on facts still missing. Gaps often sit between scopes rather than within either quote.
 
For the energy question, add a practical inspection point: even if a label or certificate is supplied, ask whether its scope covers the whole student-housing property and whether any recommendations imply near-term expenditure. Keep that expenditure separate from the document fee.
 
When comparing quotes, normalise them. One may bundle registration assistance and due diligence while another lists only core legal work. Compare included tasks, exclusions, taxes on professional charges, payment stages and the treatment of unexpected additional work.
 
Exactly. “Notary” may be shorthand in the initial budget rather than a precise description of the required work. Ask the Mumbai adviser to replace generic labels with the local service, responsible provider and expected amount or calculation method.
 
My spreadsheet would have columns for item, category, amount or formula, payer, recipient, due date, supporting document, refundable or not, and confirmed or estimated. That makes omissions visible without pretending every uncertain figure can already be fixed.
 
Add a cutoff-date column for annual amounts. The latest invoice can be useful but may not cover the same period as the planned completion. Ask whether another demand is expected before or shortly after transfer and who bears it.
 
For the exit model, preserve every document the tax adviser says may support the acquisition cost or later calculations. It is easier to organise the purchase file now than reconstruct what the ₹91,430,000 and related expenses represented years later.
 
Estimates should carry an expiry date and assumptions. A number based on today’s proposed structure, completion date and property details may not remain usable if negotiations change any of those inputs.
 
Before signing, ask for one reconciled funds statement tied back to the sale agreement and the five schedules. Any unexplained difference should be assigned to a named person to resolve, rather than absorbed into a vague contingency.
 
One final caveat: seller information, broker estimates and forum checklists can identify questions, but they do not settle Mumbai-specific title, tax or residency treatment. The buyer’s licensed local advisers should confirm the answers for the actual parties and ownership structure.
 
So the practical sequence is: define buyer and assets, confirm intended use, choose and compare ownership structures, itemise completion cash, verify recurring demands, identify energy paperwork, model exit and inheritance, then reconcile everything before signing. That is much stronger than adding a percentage buffer to the first estimate.
 
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