Editorial policy
How We Research Our Guides
Our guides answer questions people ask before they build: who passes the map, what a plot allows, what it costs. Here is how we make sure the answers are right, and what to do if you find one that is not.
Every fact comes from a source we name
Our state map-approval guides, city pages and cost and materials guides list their sources at the foot of the page, and blog posts that quote a rule or a number list theirs at the end. We work from the documents themselves wherever we can:
- government gazette notifications, building bye-laws and development control regulations;
- state and city approval portals and their published procedures;
- Acts of the legislature, through the state's own copy or PRS Legislative Research;
- Bureau of Indian Standards codes and the National Building Code;
- court judgments, for what a court actually decided.
We use news reports only for dated events, such as a portal opening or a rule being announced, and we give the date. We do not take rules from consultants' blogs or property listings.
Dates, and rules that change
Building rules in India change often: new portals, new self-certification limits, new bye-laws. Each guide shows when it was last checked. When a rule is announced but not yet notified, we say so rather than treat it as law. Where two official sources disagree, we show both and say which one we follow; where we could not confirm something, we leave it out or tell you to ask the office concerned.
What we never do
- Copy text or drawings from other websites.
- State a fact about a design that its drawing does not show.
- Publish reviews, ratings or figures we cannot stand behind.
- Present vastu tradition as engineering; our vastu pages show where sources differ.
- Give legal advice: for ownership, tenancy or disputes, we tell you to ask a lawyer.
Found a mistake? Tell us
If a page is out of date or wrong, send us the page and what you found on WhatsApp or by email to hello@designsqr.com. We check it against the source, correct the page and update its date.
Guides are a start, not the last word
A guide explains the rules in general. Your plot's own approval depends on its layout, zone, road and the authority's current practice, so we check these for your plot before we draw. See all our guides on the resources page, or read more about Design SQR.