Here we ''My Reality India" gives RBI's (Reserve Bank of India) Explanation about Housing loan agreement documentation.
Where is the need to read, the Housing loan agreement documentation ?
You are not taking an informed decision. If you thought somebody would have pointed this to me if there was any problem, then maybe they did but you could not read or listen to it. Think again!
Transparent Manner
Borrowers' & lenders' rights may not be expressed clearly in a transparent manner in all the loan agreements.
The home loan agreement may not be provided to you in advance so that this could be read and understood before you sign the agreement.
Reset clause..!
Every method may be used to delay handing over a copy to the borrower in sufficient time. Some areas you may focus are check the “reset clause” incorporated by some banks in their home loan agreements that allows them to change the interest rate in the future, even on fixed rate loans.
Banks may set their reset clauses for 3 or 2 year intervals. They say a lender cannot have an agreement that a fixed rate is set for the entire tenure of 15 to 20 years as this will cause an asset-liability mismatch.Talk to your bank.
Please seek clarifications on the term “exceptional circumstances” (if stated in the loan agreement) under which loan rates can be unilaterally changed by your bank.
A common person thinks that default ideally means non-payment of one or more loan installments. In some loan documentation it can include divorce and death (in individual case) and even involvement in civil litigation or criminal offence.
Does the loan agreement say that disbursement of the loan may be made directly to the builder or developer and in the case of a ready-built property to the vendor thereof and/or in such other manner as may be decided solely by bank? It is the borrower whose original property papers are retained with the bank, so why disburse to the builder.
Delay penalty..!
Possession of property has been delayed in some cases when the cheque was issued in the name of the builder and the builder refused to pay delay penalty to the borrower .
Does the agreement enable assignment of your loan to a third party?
You take into account reputation and credibility of the bank before entering into a loan agreement with it. Are you comfortable with third party takes over or should you also be allowed to move your home loan from one bank to another in that case?
Look for ambiguous clauses and discuss with the banker. Some agreements say changes in employment etc. have to be informed well in advance without quantifying the term “well in advance”.
Reading the fine print
In one case the loan documentation says “issuance of pre-approval letter should not be construed as a commitment by the bank to grant the housing loan and processing fees is not refundable even if the home loan is not processed”.
This is never ending it seems. The above are only indicative instances of what has been observed/reported/ indicated by various sources.
However, RBI;s main objective was to get you into the habit of reading the fine print.
If you have read this, you would have understood the importance of reading fine print in any document and we have achieved our objective.
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