How to check a commute claim before you buy or rent.

1. Why the commute is the cost you pay every working day

A home is chosen once and lived in for years. The price is paid once, through a loan or a deposit. The commute is paid every working day, by every person in the household, for as long as you live there.

That makes the commute one of the largest costs of a home that never appears on the price list. It is also the one most often decided by a single number in an ad.

2. The anatomy of a commute claim: hour, start point, end point, mode, road

Every commute claim leaves out at least one of five things. Once you can name the missing part, you know the question to ask.

• Hour: when was it measured, and on which day?
• Start point: the gate, or a main road or highway exit nearby?
• End point: your building, or the edge of an area?
• Mode: car, two wheeler, metro, bus, or a mix?
• Road: does the route use a road or line that is not open yet?

3. Minutes, kilometres and “as the crow flies”

Distance is not time. A kilometre on an expressway and a kilometre through a market are different trips. Straight line distance is not even a route; no vehicle travels it.

When a claim gives you a distance, convert it into a time at your hour, by the road you would actually take.

4. “Near the metro”: the walk, the exit, the feeder and the wait

A metro commute is gate to entrance, entrance to platform, the wait, the ride with any interchange, and exit to desk. Add all five. The wait is about half the published headway at your hour.

5. “Upcoming”: how to read a project's status from the implementing agency

Every metro line, expressway and flyover has an implementing agency that publishes its status. Find it, read the status for the section near the home, and write down the date you checked.

Operational means open. Under construction means work has started. Sanctioned means approved. Proposed means planned. None of them is a date.

6. Measuring it yourself: when to travel, how many days, what to record

You can do a useful check in three working days. The routine below is the one our own surveyors start from.

• Travel on at least three different weekdays, avoiding public holidays.
• Leave at the hour you would really leave.
• Start at the gate and stop at your desk.
• Record date, departure time, mode, total and any disruption.
• Look at the spread as well as the middle.

7. Households with two commuters and a school run

Add every person's weekly hours, then look at how they are split. Include the school run at drop off time. The home that is best for one person is often worst for another, and the total hides that.

8. Tenants: checking a commute in a city you don't know yet

Start from your office and your hours, not the listings. Shortlist areas by travel time first, run free checks before broker visits, and measure the final few flats in the same weeks.

9. What RERA and consumer law say about property advertisements

This chapter is an overview for context only. It is not legal advice, and the provisions below should be read in their current, amended form; state rules differ, so check your state.

Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, an advertisement for a registered project must show the RERA website address where its registration details can be found (Section 11(2)). Section 12 deals with the veracity of advertisements: where a buyer makes an advance or deposit based on information in an advertisement or prospectus and suffers loss because of an incorrect statement in it, the promoter is liable to compensate, and a buyer who withdraws is entitled to a refund with interest and compensation. Section 31 provides for complaints to the state authority or adjudicating officer. Some states add their own advertisement requirements, such as QR codes.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Central Consumer Protection Authority's 2022 guidelines on advertisements and endorsements require claims to be capable of substantiation. The ASCI Code, a self regulatory code, asks the same of advertisers.

A dated, method stamped report is a record of what a trip took. Whether and how to use it is a decision for you and your lawyer.

Not legal advice. Provisions summarised for context; read the current text and your state's rules.

10. Questions to ask the sales team, and how to keep a dated record

Ask the five anatomy questions for every claim. Write down the answers with the date and the name of the project. Keep your own measurements or report with your purchase papers.

• At what hour and on what day was this time measured?
• From which gate, to which building?
• By which mode?
• Does the route use anything not yet open?
• Can you give me that in writing?

11. The commute log sheet

One row per trip: date, weekday, departure time, mode, gate, destination, total minutes, and notes on rain, accidents or closures. Print it, or keep the same columns in a spreadsheet.