Real Estate project delayed due to statutory approvals? How to tell the customer.

In the case of delayed projects, communicating in time is critical! 

If you are a real estate builder in India and one (some?) of your projects are delayed, this blog post is just for you. In this carefully crafted sample letter, we present to you several solutions which you may find priceless while communicating with your customers, when your project is behind schedule due to delay in project approvals and clearances.

Note: Text in italics is absolutely optional and you may delete or modify those parts as per your requirement.

Sample communication to customers of a delayed real estate project- India.

Dear Customer<Name is Mandatory, make it personal and warm>,

Greetings of the day. At the onset, all of us at <Insert Builder Company's Name/ Group Name/ Project Name> would like to thank you for choosing to buy an apartment in our project <Insert Project Name>. We write to you today to inform you, well in advance that due to <Choose 1- bad governance, lack of proper guidelines, unnecessary and in-explainable delays in project approvals, guy took my money and disappeared and finally, reasons beyond our control [100% users chose this option]>, we foresee the project running behind the promised delivery schedule.

We thought that you should know that most real estate projects have 3 critical aspects;

#1. Statutory Approvals - For the start of construction of this project <or other stage where your project may be in>, there are <14> number of statutory approvals that are required from various authorities. You will be glad to know that we have successfully obtained <9> of these already! Of the remaining <5> approvals, <3> are required at a later stage and the remaining <2> have been applied for. A small list follows to help you understand this better:

a. Approval 1 - Development Authority Plan Sanction - Obtained - 29.02.2013
b. Civil Aviation Clearance for Build Height - Obtained - 02.01.2013
.
.
<keep it simple, true and clean>

We would like to add that this very list, along with the supporting documents are available for your scrutiny at our office. Please feel free to get in touch with <Nyay> on <insert phone number> and he will be happy to run you through the documents and resolve any queries that you may have.

#2. Construction - Our Group has always been associated with credibility, quality and timely deliveries. Why not call <Guy who can show around a completed site to give the customers the quality assurance> and take a look for yourself? The coffee at our site office is exceptional too, we are told.

Our construction contracts are also in place and we have chosen some of the best contractors to build your dream home. <Insert a paragraph about your contractors, architect and engineers. Tell the customer what you really feel as the builder. Assure your customer the same way as you would assure other stakeholders>.

(Yes, you are looking at minor costs for this coordination but they are far more manageable than having to dish out refunds to cancelling customers. Trust us. You don't want to get into that situation.)

#3. Finance - From our investors to numerous vendors, our brand name stands for financial stability. As a customer, we value you immensely and if you are not happy with the progress and the immense transparency which we bring forth to you, you are free to write to us about a refund, subject to our fair and industry standard refund policy.

We reckon that this glitch and the resulting delay will be resolved by <Insert Probable Date>. The necessary processes and the resulting approvals/ clearances should be in place by then. It will be ambitious to say that all of this delay shall be made up by speeding up construction post the clearance. But we do plan to make up for as much lost time as possible.

Needless to say, we will keep you posted about the progress on priority. You are most valuable to us.

Thanks and regards,
<Put a name here. Preferably a senior person or a director>

Hope that helps.