ᐅ Floor plan of a house or living space calculation incorrect?
Created on: 3 Nov 2024 00:23
S
Schlaumeier86
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
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
nordanney schrieb:
The bank doesn't care about the ID when it comes to the 2021 house at all. [...] Yes, just tell the bank what's going on, and that's all there is to it.I find the original poster’s concerns justified: not to admit quietly to the bank, only when asked, that the loan collateral is a dozen square meters smaller than expected. We have had cases here where financing commitments (which were based on the customers’ creditworthiness but not on the excessively high price of the property) were adjusted, and the prospective buyers ended up having to back out.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
I could have sworn that before refreshing the page, it said "Gebäudeenergiegesetz(ebenen)" instead of just "Gebäudeenergiegesetz." Probably some AI (artificial impertinence) is causing trouble here. It seems to me that it said g g f there.
Anyway, there is interest in a house. No bank or financing has been mentioned yet.
When applying for financing, you use realistic data, no matter where it comes from; a few square meters don’t matter at all. People refer to an approximate living area.
You don’t approach financing with a brochure, but with the house itself.
If you don’t have current or accurate drawings, you revise them.
N
nordanney3 Nov 2024 21:5111ant schrieb:
I think the original poster’s concerns are justified; it’s not right to quietly admit to the bank only when asked that the collateral for the loan is a dozen square meters smaller than expected. nordanney schrieb:
Yes, just tell the bank what’s going on and that’s it. That’s exactly why I added my comment. It’s not appropriate to withhold information. My point was that the bank mainly wants to know how “green” or “brown” the house is. For example, G + H financing is no longer offered, or only if the property is also renovated to improve energy efficiency.