What to Check Before Renting a Flat in Delhi NCR

Start with the water, because it is the hardest thing to fix later

Water is the single most common Delhi rental regret, and it is the one thing you cannot fix from inside the flat. Spend the first five minutes of any viewing on it.

• Open the shower and the kitchen tap fully, at the same time. One tap on its own tells you nothing. Two together tells you whether the pressure is real. Do this on a top-floor flat especially — gravity-fed supply from an overhead tank gets weak at the top of the building.
• Ask where the water actually comes from. Piped supply, a borewell, tankers, or a mix of all three. Ask how many hours a day the supply runs and whether tankers are needed in May and June. A flat that depends on tankers in peak summer is a different flat from one that does not, and the viewing is the only moment you can ask without it sounding like a complaint.
• Ask when the overhead tank and the underground sump were last cleaned. Ask for a date, not a reassurance. This is the water you will drink and cook with. Our water supply and tank tips cover what a well-kept tank looks like, and the water tank cleaning guide covers what a proper clean involves.
• Fill a basin and watch it drain. Then flush every WC. A drain that gurgles, backs up, or empties slowly is telling you about the stack, not just the trap — and in a high-rise the stack is shared with every flat above and below you.
• Look under every basin and behind every WC. You want a stop valve that exists and actually turns, and no damp cupboard floor. A swollen, stained cabinet base under a basin is a slow leak that has been there a while.

Look for damp in the four places it always hides

Seepage is the fault most likely to make a flat genuinely unpleasant to live in, and it is seasonal — a wall that looks perfectly fine in April can bloom in July. So you are not looking for wet walls. You are looking for the evidence that a wall has been wet before.

• The ceiling under a bathroom. If someone else's bathroom sits above yours, that patch of ceiling is where their leak arrives. Look for a ring stain, a slightly different shade of white, or a patch of fresh paint in one small area of an otherwise old ceiling.
• The wall shared with a neighbour's bathroom or kitchen. Same logic, sideways.
• The corners of external walls, and behind the door of every room. These are the coldest, least ventilated spots and where damp shows first.
• The top-floor ceiling. On a top-floor flat, the terrace above you is the roof over your head. Ask when it was last waterproofed, and by whom — the society or the owner. Our terrace waterproofing guide explains why this matters more than anything else in a top-floor tenancy.

The free test that works: press your palm flat against a suspicious patch for a few seconds. Damp plaster feels cooler than the wall around it. Also tap it — plaster that has been wet sounds hollow and sometimes crumbles slightly at a fingernail.

A single small patch of fresh paint in an old room is worth a direct, friendly question: what was covered, when, and what was done about the source? Our wall seepage guide explains how to tell damp coming through a wall from a plumbing leak behind it, which is exactly the distinction that decides whether a repaint will hold.

The twenty-minute fittings test: switches, sockets, doors, locks

Carry a phone charger to the viewing. It is the cheapest socket tester there is. Walk the flat once and test everything that moves or switches, in this order.

• Every socket, with the charger. Dead sockets are common and often not mentioned. Note them by room.
• Every light and fan. Run the fans up to full speed and listen — wobble and grinding are ordinary wear, but a fan that hums without turning is a fault.
• The distribution board. Find it, open the flap, and look. You want clearly labelled MCBs and, ideally, an RCCB — the earth-leakage device that protects people rather than wiring. Many older Delhi flats have none. Do not touch anything inside; just look, photograph it, and ask. If the board is scorched, crowded with loose wires, or has old rewirable fuse holders, treat that as a serious question rather than a detail — our guide on the signs house wiring needs replacing lists exactly what those marks mean.
• Every window and door, opened and closed fully. Delhi's swing between dry heat and monsoon humidity makes wooden doors and frames move; a door that sticks in August will stick every August.
• Every lock, with the actual key. Turn it from both sides. Ask directly how many sets of keys exist and whether the lock has been changed since the last tenant. Changing a lock at the start of a tenancy is a small, sensible job — see the door lock replacement guide for what is involved.
• The geyser and the exhaust fans. Switch the geyser on early in the viewing and come back to it before you leave. Bathroom and kitchen exhausts matter more than people think in a humid monsoon.

None of this needs any technical knowledge. It needs a list and twenty minutes, and it turns “the flat seemed fine” into a specific set of items you can raise before signing.

Check the building, not just the flat

In a Delhi apartment you are renting a share of a building as much as a set of rooms. Several of the things that will annoy you most are outside the front door.

• Power backup. Ask what is actually backed up — the lift and common areas only, or your sockets too, and how many. A backup that runs the lights but not the AC is a very different summer.
• The lift, and what happens when it fails. Ride it. On a higher floor, ask how often it is out and who maintains it.
• Parking. Ask whether the spot is allotted, shared, or informally claimed, and get it named in writing rather than agreed verbally.
• The society or RWA rules. Ask about work timings, whether the service lift must be used for shifting, whether there is a shifting charge or refundable amount, and whether pets and tenants are restricted. Our guide on what a society or RWA maintains covers where the building's responsibility ends and yours begins.
• Maintenance charges. Ask what they are, what they cover, and — the question people forget — who pays them, you or the owner. Get the answer written into the agreement rather than remembered.
• Walk the stairwell one floor up and one floor down. Cracked common walls, water stains in the stairwell and an untidy terrace door tell you how the building is actually run, which no brochure will.

Before you sign: what to write down and what to ask

Delhi rentals commonly run on eleven-month agreements arranged through a broker, and they are often signed fast. Slowing down for one hour at this point is the highest-value hour of the whole tenancy. This is about documentation and clear communication, not about rights — if you want a view on what the agreement itself means, ask a professional who advises on that.

• Write the defects into the agreement or an annexure. Every dead socket, stained ceiling, cracked tile and sticking door you found above. A list attached to the agreement and signed by both sides is the single best protection against a deposit argument later.
• Photograph the whole flat before you move a box in. Timestamped, room by room, including close-ups of existing damage and the electricity and water meter readings. Send a copy to the landlord the same week so the record is shared and not just yours.
• Agree who pays for what, in writing. Routine wear, a burst pipe, a failed geyser, a society repair — the split varies by agreement and it is much easier to settle now. Our guide on who pays for repairs, tenant or landlord sets out how these are usually divided in practice, so you can raise the question specifically.
• Note the deposit amount, and how and when it comes back. Deposits are the most commonly disputed part of a Delhi tenancy. Agreeing the return process in writing at the start is far easier than negotiating it at the end — our guide on getting your security deposit back covers the practical steps.
• Ask what condition the flat should be returned in. Repainted or not, professionally cleaned or not. This one sentence prevents most end-of-tenancy disputes.

Once you have signed, the useful list changes. Our tip on moving into a new flat covers the first week, and our setting up a new flat checklist covers the order to get things installed while the place is still empty.