Auctioneers measurements of property incorrect

gigino

An uncle was telling me how he was looking at a house recently, and the garage attached to the house interested him as he would use it to sometimes accomodate some items. He thought it looked smaller than the auctioneers measurements in the brochure, so he measured it, and sure enough, it was considerably less. A pity, as it now meant the garage was not very suitable for what he had in mind. He then out of curiosity measured the other rooms in the house - length by breath - to see how they compared to the auctioneers brochure, and the brochure oversized the rooms by a foot or so ( and sometimes more ) in width and length.

Surely auctioneers measure length by breath , excluding wall thickness - in other words, "carpet size" between main walls ? As opposed to measuring to insides of walls / window panes ? What about the bits of area where the opening for the doors are?

Patrickof

There is a formal guide to how measurements should be taken. Quite technical, but more so for commercial properties as the rent is based on the sq footage, and what should and what shouldn't be measured are strictly defined.

However, to answer your question, auctioneers should measure the "carpet area", i.e. wall to wall - not window panes, but they can omit stuff like chimney breasts and measure into the alcoves.

Personally I use a Hilti laser measurer, which as I do commercial properties, has to be formally calibrated by Hilti every 2 years. Unlike those cheapy B&Q / black and decker ones that cost about €40, this Hilti one costs nearly €900.

There's no excuse for incorrect measurements, and as always the error is on the side that makes the property look better. You never see properties "under" measured.

Having said all that, the usual "caveat emptor" applies, the auctioneers measurements are a guide only, and you should verify any measurements yourself if you need to rely on them.

Doop

Preety well covered by the above post...

Auctioneers brochures will always have a disclaimer on them.

Its just kinda sloppy by whatever auctioneer did it.

Cheshire Cat

Love the following measurement given in a daft ad: Extending to 1,600 sq. ft. (external dimensions) - says it all!

http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=574988

CC

gigino

Measurements of property are normally interior measurements are they not . I know if an apartment is e.g. 600 sq ft thats the interior ( " carpet area " ). With a house it must be difficult to measure the interior area if there are lots of nooks and crannies.

JuliusCaesar

Really annoys me that they often just give measurements in feet - at least give them in both metric and imperial!

And give the overall size of the house ffs, not just the measurements room by room and force me to add them up (especially when they're in feet and inches.)

mikemac

I've no concept but could guess what a 600ft sq ft flat is but I know a few examples in sq metres.

And I went to primary school in the eighties and feet were gone back then, nearly 30 years ago
Yes, if they are going to use sq ft, at least give the metric size too.

Sure I could work it out myself but realy, a potential buyer or renter should not have to

gigino

well, if you read that the area of a property was 150 square meters, you would assume thats the " carpet area"/ "floor area" would you not....instead of the area including the thickness of the walls.