Home buyers urged to check floor plans as they could save ‘tens of thousands’ if mismeasured
BUYERS hoping to get on the housing ladder could be in line for tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of savings if they identify inaccurate floor plans.
According to property measurement firm , homes across the country are routinely mismeasured, meaning buyers have purchased less floor space than was advertised.
Spec's research found that two-thirds of traditional floor plans overstated the size of a home.
The average discrepancy across all properties was 54 square feet, while in houses it was 92 square feet - potentially meaning properties are being sold for more than they are worth.
In one case, a four-bedroom house in north London was marketed as being 2,407 sq ft, but in reality was found to have only 2,299 sq ft of usable space.
Meanwhile, a flat in east London was advertised at 469 sq ft but only had 412 sq ft of liveable room.
If floor plans are found to be incorrect, sellers could also face legal action for mis-selling.
Spec said the problems arise because estate agents often measure from the widest points of a room, using alcoves and other recesses, to give the impression rooms are bigger than they are.
In loft conversions, sloped ceilings may not be taken into account.
In one case, which Spec identified, a homeowner was about to purchase a property described as having three bedrooms before it emerged that the loft conversion was not big enough to be legally called a bedroom.
Niall Keelaghan, 36, said he was almost caught out when he agreed to purchase the property in Horsham, West Sussex.
Why does accurate measuring matter?
WHEN you look at the description of a home, you are usually presented with a floor plan. But why is it important that this is accurate?
- Property professionals need an accurate size in order to responsibly value the property
- Buyers and tenants want to know what they’re getting for their money
- Owners want to market the property in its best possible light
- Estate agents are legally liable if their details omit important information or contain inaccurate information about properties
- Lenders and insurers need accurate size data to measure their risk against the value of a house
When he visited the house, he thought the loft conversion was much smaller than the floor plan suggested and so paid for his own measurements to be carried out.
This revealed that the room was too small to be legally counted as a bedroom.
Under UK law, bedrooms must be 50 square feet or 4.6 square metres.
“They had included space in the loft room that was eave space,” he told . “That wasn’t usable square footage and we wouldn’t have been able to get a bed in.
“They had marketed it as a bedroom but the staircase wasn’t compliant with building regulations because of the space it was in.”
As a result of his findings, Mr Keelaghan was able to negotiate the seller down from the asking price of £415,000 to £373,000, saving £42,000.
James Marshall at Spec said the price of properties in expensive areas of London could change by tens of thousands of pounds.
“Floor plans will often take into account the alcoves, or miss a few inches here and there,” he said.
“They create a floor plan which gives a very accurate number but at the bottom says for illustrative purposes only.”
It is possible to check floorplan measurements yourself using a tape measure, although it is hard to do this accurately.
Online tools such as can help, and they cost around £10 for a single use.
Professional firms can do it for you, but it will cost you a couple of hundred pounds.
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