ᐅ Floor plan of a house or living space calculation incorrect?

Hello everyone,

We are interested in purchasing an existing property, a house built in 2021 by a well-known prefab house manufacturer.
We are quite far along in negotiations, and the price has even been agreed upon.
Now we see discrepancies in the living area measurements.

On paper:
Manufacturer’s flyer: 134m2 (1443 sq ft) total floor area;

Sales brochure: approx. 130m2 (1399 sq ft);

Floor plan: for the attic (with sloped ceilings), each room shows two different m2 (sq ft) values. I assume these represent the total floor area and the smaller figure accounts for the living area according to the German Residential Space Ordinance (WoFIV).

Calculation of living space according to WoFIV for each room and overall. The m2 values correspond to the smaller figures shown on the floor plan.

So far, so good. But:

1. The floor plan states knee wall height at 1.5m (5 feet), roof pitch 38 degrees.
2. In reality, the knee wall is 1m (3 feet). They said – sorry, the architect forgot to update this where the building permit only allowed a 1m knee wall height and corresponding roof pitch. OK, fine. We are interested in the property; we first viewed it and thought it was fine – then we saw the documents.
3. We measured onsite ourselves to check at what distance from the knee wall the sloped ceiling reaches 2m (6.6 feet) height. The result: at 1.6m (5.2 feet). The actual knee wall height is effectively only 90cm (3 feet) due to insulation, flooring, etc.
4. At home, we calculated the living space for a room with 4m by 3.7m (13 by 12 feet), total floor area 14.8m2 (159 sq ft). Using a roof pitch of about 32 degrees (calculated, not measured), and the WoFIV rules where areas under 1m (3 feet) knee wall height do not count, and areas between 1m and 2m count as 50%, we get only about 11.6m2 (125 sq ft) of living space instead of the stated 13.27m2 (143 sq ft)—a difference of more than 7%. We don’t believe we made such a large measurement error with the tape measure.

Question: Are our calculations incorrect regarding the Building Energy Act, or should the issue be examined more closely? Should a new living area measurement be requested?

Thank you

Schlaumeier86 schrieb:

Existing Property

!

Schlaumeier86 schrieb:

Question: Are our calculations based on the Building Energy Act incorrect, or should the whole thing be reviewed more closely? Is a new calculation of the living area required according to the Building Energy Act?
Thanks

It doesn’t matter at all!
Bought as seen.
If a listing for a (relatively new) existing property includes the original offer for the house, some color photos, sample photos, or older flyers to make it more appealing or attractive, that is perfectly fine but does not form the basis of the sale.
Get an impression of the house yourselves, bring in an expert if necessary, but do not compare it to anything else unless it concerns your personal listing.
The living area is usually offered only as an approximate value, because a sales offer is not regulated on market living square meters like rental properties are. Ultimately, it serves only for personal comparison, not as a basis for the property’s value.
In the end, what counts is what you actually have, not what was stated in a flyer back then, since even in 2021 houses were individually adapted for their builders.

So, three years ago the sellers wanted a house listed as 134 sqm (1,444 sq ft) in the brochure. Their development plan only allowed a half-meter (1.6 feet) lower knee wall height and 6° less roof pitch, and they still wanted it then. The question now is whether this "still want it" also applies to you. The fact that the brochure values no longer apply after this double reduction is, of course, not due to the calculation standard. The actual "values" will not match the brochure (which has not been implemented exactly here) but will be found in the building file. Your bank will refer to these values when deciding if they agree with the price during their affordability assessment. For you, this decision should be viewed more loosely. After all, you live in rooms, not square meters. Report truthfully to the bank from the building file, and make your decision "with your heart." If it feels like "your" house, then don’t measure it by ten or twelve square meters (about 100–130 sq ft) less than the brochure.

---

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Thank you!
Yes, the bank is problematic in this case, too. The incorrect values related to the building energy regulations were stated in the official plans/documents that the bank also requires...
You definitely don’t want to "mislead" the bank in the end…

Schlaumeier86 schrieb:

Yes, the bank is problematic in this case, as the incorrect values from the building energy act were listed in the official plans/documents which the bank also requires...
You don’t want to end up “misleading” the bank...

I could swear that before refreshing the page it said “building energy act (levels)” instead of just “building energy act.” Probably an AI (artificial impertinence) is at work here.

You are not misleading the bank: You inform them honestly that the values originally provided turned out to be incorrect and that the correct ones, which need to be obtained from the building file, are about xy lower. The bank will then adjust its financing commitment accordingly. This means you will likely have to agree to the previously discussed price for the unexpectedly smaller property subject to your bank’s approval. Sellers should understand that this would apply equally to other potential buyers.

With that in mind, I wish you good luck with purchasing a nominally somewhat smaller, but right house for you!

---

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Schlaumeier86 schrieb:

Not that you end up "misleading" the bank…

For the bank, the certificate for the 2021 house doesn’t really matter. The house is classified as green and can be included in a green covered bond or reported in the annual report as part of green financing.
Yes, just inform the bank about what is going on, and that’s all there is to it.