The square-footage shocker

DEAR BENNY: In December 2007, I took title to a condominium unit that was listed on the MLS (multiple listing service) as being 1,017 square feet, according to the public records. Recently, I was going through a real estate handbook that I own, and it suggested that I have a copy of the appraisal in my files. Since I didn't have one, I requested a copy from my bank. I was shocked to find that the bank found the square footage to be 864 square feet, not 1,017.

Before I took title, my real estate agent met the appraiser at the condo unit and said that I didn't have to be there. The day after the appraisal, I called my real estate agent to ask if everything went OK and she said yes.

Did my real estate agent have legal responsibility to point out the discrepancy? And can title insurance help me claim anything financially at this point? Do you have any other suggestions on what I should do? --Larry

DEAR LARRY: There is an old expression that when there are two lawyers, there will be three opinions. In real estate, when you are trying to analyze square footage, you may actually get four or five opinions.

Measuring square footage has become a hotly debated topic to which there is no definitive answer. Although there are industry standards when measuring single-family houses and office and apartment buildings (which are often ignored anyway), to the best of my knowledge there are no such industry standards for measuring condominium and cooperative apartments.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has published a document entitled "Square Footage -- Method for Calculating" (ANSI Z765-2003). However, it applies only to single-family houses. For attached properties (such as townhomes, which we used to call "row houses"), ANSI states that "the finished square footage of each level is the sum of the finished areas on that level measured at floor level to the exterior finished surfaces of the outside wall or from the centerlines between houses, where appropriate."

Note the words "exterior" and "centerlines."

In a condominium unit, however, developer attorneys who prepare the legal documents tell me that they try to get the engineer who is preparing the measurements to follow the unit boundaries as are spelled out in those documents.

In a condominium, there are two important legal records: the declaration and the bylaws.

The former creates the condominium and contains basic concepts, including a definition of units, common elements and limited common elements.

Here's an example of a definition of a unit from a local District of Columbia declaration:

"Each Condominium Unit includes the horizontal space between the Unit side of the exterior walls of the building and the finished walls separating the Unit from corridors, stairs, and, where applicable, to the surface of the finished walls of those interior walls which separate one Unit from another Unit. Each Condominium Unit also includes the vertical space measured from the (topside) surface of the subflooring to the finished (exposed) surface of the ceiling of such Unit." ...CONTINUED

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