What is the real floor area??

frostforest

I am buying my first property in life and the offer was just accepted (a bit above the asking price, but the asking price has been reduced after 2 months on Internet)

According to the floor plan, the floor area is 81 SQ Meter (measures are approximate). However, later I received an EPC report of the property. In the report, it shows "Total floor area: 73 SQ Meter.

I am confused about the measures. Because the difference is 8m², which will significantly affect the price of the property. What I can do now? Can I ask for a price reduce before exchange the contract?

Thank you for your time.

lush_walrus

Isn't the first step finding out if there was an error on the EPC? The EAs will give room dims if you work out all of the rooms areas is it closer to one of the other? Of course this will only give an approx as it won't account for corridors and stairs etc

frostforest

lush_walrus wrote: »

Isn't the first step finding out if there was an error on the EPC? The EAs will give room dims if you work out all of the rooms areas is it closer to one of the other? Of course this will only give an approx as it won't account for corridors and stairs etc

The corridor' shape is not a square so it is not straightforward to measure the total area.
You mentioned that the approximate area does not include the corridor. Do you mean it for floor plan or EPC report?

In the EPC report, it shows "Total floor area: 73 m²". I assume it does mean the total floor area including all rooms and corridor. Just wondering if it is a normal thing (big area difference between floor plan and EPC report) or not. Thanks.

lincroft1710

There are 3 ways to measure a property

1. Gross External Area

2. Gross Internal Area

3. Effective Floor Area

and EFA can be interpreted differently, some will ignore hallways, corridors, staircases and cupboards, others will include.

So you need to ask whoever produced whichever area as to how they measured the property

nicmyles

In the process of our last flat being bought and sold, it was measured five times by different agents and surveyors and came out as 628 sq ft, 716, 710, 702, 690.

Now, the first one of those was clearly wrong, but the others are within the range you would expect from different people measuring a property. Does the measurement make a difference to the value of the property? Not really, given that the property itself is the same regardless.

Cash-Cows

frostforest wrote: »

I am buying my first property in life and the offer was just accepted (a bit above the asking price, but the asking price has been reduced after 2 months on Internet)

According to the floor plan, the floor area is 81 SQ Meter (measures are approximate). However, later I received an EPC report of the property. In the report, it shows "Total floor area: 73 SQ Meter.

I am confused about the measures. Because the difference is 8m², which will significantly affect the price of the property. What I can do now? Can I ask for a price reduce before exchange the contract?

Thank you for your time.

Measure it yourself and then you will know. It's not difficult but you do need to know which method is used and there are several.

lush_walrus

frostforest wrote: »

The corridor' shape is not a square so it is not straightforward to measure the total area.
You mentioned that the approximate area does not include the corridor. Do you mean it for floor plan or EPC report?

In the EPC report, it shows "Total floor area: 73 m²". I assume it does mean the total floor area including all rooms and corridor. Just wondering if it is a normal thing (big area difference between floor plan and EPC report) or not. Thanks.

Just trying to find a simple check for you. If you add up the areas of all of the rooms, taken from the EAs floor plan what do you get?

AlexMac

frostforest wrote: »

... the difference is 8m², which will significantly affect the price of the property... Can I ask for a price reduce before exchange the contract?

You can ask, as haggling is an accepted part of the house-buying process, but ...
...having bought both here and in Italy, I note that detail of floorspace tends to be less important a factor in setting prices in the UK, than say, in mainland Europe where prices are based on a formula based on floorspace.

So don't base your argument for a reduction on that factor alone. A home is worth what someone's prepared to pay for it!

Good luck

[Deleted User]

frostforest wrote: »

I am buying my first property in life

Have you previously bought properties in other circumstances?

Davesnave

AlexMac wrote: »

floorspace tends to be less important a factor in setting prices in the UK, than say, in mainland Europe where prices are based on a formula based on floorspace.

So don't base your argument for a reduction on that factor alone. A home is worth what someone's prepared to pay for it!

Someone is also bound to reply that you saw exactly what you were getting when you made your offer, and nothing's changed.

lwhiteman88

If you really want to get into detail you can use this guide. Although probably a bit extreme!!
http://www.isurv.com/site/scripts/download.aspx?type=downloads&fileID=167

Edit: I forgot to mention that most people will use Net Internal which is measuring each room and adding them up whereas if surveyed correctly Gross Internal includes internal walls etc. I doubt many of the measurements EA quote are true GIA as this would require more than measuring each room.