While you are away...

Soon after the monsoons last year Bala Subramaniam needed to urgently execute waterproofing work in his ancestral home at Nariman Point to fix leakages that were damaging the walls It looked difficult as the 65yearold NRI nonresident Indian had to leave for Nigeria where he has been residing for the past 30 yearsAnimesh Dey an engineer who runs a consulting business in Nashville with his mother Kanika DeyHowever the work was done and that too in his absence He hired the services of Origin Home Care Services which offers to look after the maintenance of second homes mostly for NRIs while they are away ldquoIt is one thing to hire a contractor to fix the leakages but another to trust them to do a proper job clean up thereafter and ensure the safety of your home Knowing that professionals were overseeing the site I was at easerdquo says SubramaniamThe founder of Origin Home Care Services Mikail Pardiwala is a 24yearold psychology student who stumbled upon an idea when he saw his 80yearold neighbour struggle to carry out maintenance paper work and tackle some legal issues while her children were abroad Last November he launched his company with three other partners ldquoMy father is an interior designer and we had helped a few NRI clients rent our their spaces after completion of interior workUsually when NRIs come down they spend the first week of their holiday tackling repairs cleaning payments and legal issues It shouldnrsquot be sordquo says Pardiwala who has clients in Dubai Canada Hong Kong and the USPardiwala offers annual packages as well as individual services which can be customised as per the clientrsquos needsThe cost ranges from R1200 per visit to R75000 annually depending on the number of services a client signs up forMikail Pardiwala colour coordinates a tile sample that needs to be replaced at an NRI clientrsquos flat in Khar picSameer MarkandeThe services include home inspections utility bill and society maintenance payments mail pickups pest control preventive maintenance property tax payments and even comprehensive cleaning Origin Home Care offers the services even if the home is rented out For 40yearold Suresh Modi name changed on request Pardiwalirsquos company handles ownertenant relationship ldquoThey handle every aspect of our responsibilities as owners including daytoday operations pertaining to the property such as arranging repairs and dealing with the society Recently we faced a leakage problem coming from an adjacent apartment which was causing damage to our apartment and others below it Being based in the US it was impossible for me to oversee the situation Origin Home Care facilitated the entire repair plan and executed it toordquo says ModiThe trust factorWhen you are away from your home there are few people you can trust to take care of your home back here And this mutual feeling is what is opening up a market believes Pardiwala ldquoYou can always ask relatives to help but it doesnrsquot always work out Hiring a domestic help is an option NRIs are forced to consider but when you are hiring a service you are convinced that professionals will handle the task well We give clients timely updates on the status of their flat and any issues that may crop up and taking approval at every step We even send before and after pictures to let them know how he work looksrdquo says Pardiwala who relies mostly on wordofmouth medium to grow hisbusinessOne of the earliest firms to offer similar services was TTK Group which started a health care plan for dependants of NRIs even before cashless insurances came into existence in 2000 ldquoWe were may be a little ahead of our timesrdquo says Suresh P managing director of Your Man In India a Bangalorebased company which was formed out of TTK in 2004 as a concierge serviceThe idea this time was to offer NRIs during their lifecycle abroad starting from students to new professionals to Green Card seekers ldquoStudents need transcripts new professionals need school and college documents and green card seekers realise that they need a birth certificate And owners of ancestral properties need someone to maintain their homes back in Indiardquo he saysSince 2007 property has been the top concern of clients says Suresh ldquoIssues of encroachment on property disputes with siblings are trending and applying for OCI overseas citizenship of India are our mostsought services which are available across Indiardquo he addsSupport for parentsSimilarly five years ago Animesh Chowdhury founded NRI Parental Company in Kolkata which solely takes care of elderly people whose children live abroad A software engineer in the US he was faced with an emergency when his father fell ill back home ldquoMy parents live alone and there was no real support for my parents Sure relatives stepped forward but after a certain point they were on their own Thatrsquos when I along with my cousin in Kolkata decided to open an inhouse concierge service that helped lsquoNRI dependantsrsquo while they were awayrdquo Chowdhury tells us over the phone His company charges a reasonable cost of 1599 for six hours a day and a three month membership costs 175 Every visit to the home costs the client 150 an invoice is sent at the end of every month depending on the service usage which could be grocery shopping home visitsdoctor appointmentsor mediclaim matters among otherMany NRIs are relieved that such services are finally on offer in India Animesh Dey an engineer who runs a consulting business in Nashville Tennesse has been an NRI for the past 20 years In 2008 he hired the Parental Care team as an added support for his parents In the beginning his motherKanika Dey was vary of taking help from ldquooutsidersrdquo seeing it as a ldquowaste of moneyrdquo but today the staff is an ldquoextension of the familyrdquo ldquoI particularly appreciate the medical help they provided in terms accompanying my parents to the doctor and consulting them on medical insurancerdquo says DeyHis mother Kanika Dey is excited when we call to her about the services she now lsquotakes for grantedrdquo ldquoThere is no work that they wonrsquot do They have been there for me since my husband was diagnosed with a kidney problemFrom bringing my weekly grocery to running errands and taking us to the doctor the staffers assist us everywhere we face a roadblockrdquo she explainsPresently companies offering bespoke NRI services are few and can be counted on fingertips This is because the demand is still warming up In the next five years the demand for such services will see a rise Sadly there are some companies exploit the NRIs by overcharging them ldquoThere are companies that charge its clients 60 for each errand that is exorbitant even if you are earning in dollarsrdquo concludes Chowdhury