Paul wrote:
I offered to buy a sectional title unit off-plan, but am wondering if I'm being cheated by the developer. On the purchase agreement for the sectional title unit, the property size is estimated at 310 square metres, as indicated on the building plans. But the size of the unit is recorded as only 297 square metres in the sectional title register. What happened to the other 13 square meters I am paying for?
The developer gave no explanation and the transfer is about to take place. Is the developer allowed to do this? I thought that the land surveyor is supposed to provide accurate measurements/dimensions. What is the margin of error that is allowed between the actual and stated measurements? Am I entitled to receive a discount on the size discrepancy?
I hope you will be able to provide some answers.
Dear Paul
You can relax. The developer is not trying to screw you over. There is a perfectly simple explanation for the "missing" 13 square meters in your sectional title unit.
The misunderstanding about the size of your newly built sectional title property probalbly comes from different measurement criteria used by different professions.
The architect who drew up the plans calculate the inside and outside measurements of the planned unit. Usually both of these are indicated on the building plans. But you have to remember that those are the planned measurements.
The land surveyor, who is responsible for calculating the actual size of the sectional title unit, measures the actual building once it has been erected. (Sometimes measurements are taken once the construction reaches floor level, to make things a little easier for the surveyor.)
Now, you do get good and bad building contractors, but even a good building contractor cannot build with millimetre accuracy. So, the measurements for the completed building will hardly ever be spot on. But even a really bad contractor won't easily make a 13 square meter mistake on a 310 square metre construction job, so we'll need to look a bit further to find your missing section space.
The draft sectional title plan is prepared and lodged with the Land Surveyor General by a qualified land surveyor. The land surveyor's measurements of the unit may not differ more than 1 square meter from the true measurement. Most land surveyors work very accurately, so this 1 sqare metre grace is usually just used to round the figures for easier calculations such as participation quotas etc.
The land surveyor only measures the final building. But he/she has to measures the building and calculate the area of the unit to the middle of the exterior walls. There are some exceptions, such as entrance patios, or other portions that may not have a wall to define all of the sides.
Do you see where I'm going? The architect measured his/her drawing either on the outside or the inside, while the land surveyor measured to the middle of the exterior wall. This would obviously lead to a difference in their area calculations. And with a sectional title unit of that size, this could easily account for the 13 square metre difference in size.
From the information you provided, this doesn't seem like a sectional title scam to me. But you could check to see if the registered section area falls within the inside and outside measurements as provided by the architect.
As for discounting the purchase price for the section, I suggest you speak to a legal expert about your possible rights regarding the purchase agreement. The wording of the contract is very important, and there will most probably be a clause that deals with the estimated size of the section.
I hope this answer helps and that your sectional title unit will stop shrinking immediately! ;)
