Elevation Changed the Floor Plan (Dallas: real estate, broker, lawyers)

[j0nes78]

Hi -

We are building with a new home builder. Signed a contract with Elevation A. Executed a change order to Elevation D.

When we looked at the model house with Elevation D after signing the change order, the game room looked different. The Game room has a boxed wall and loses 40Sqft out of total 300 Sqft.

Now, this change was not in my contract (loss of Sqft). It actually reduces the overall sqft of the game room and the house.

Do i have any recourse? Builder says its permitted already, cannot change elevation.

And i need to pay for the changes to the tune of $10K.

[ashbeeigh]

You may want to ask in the general real estate group too. I’m not a homeowner nor ever build a new house so I don’t have any insight, just trying to get you your answer. I also think you’ll get the same advice here that you got in the Dallas forum. Where is the home?

[blakely]

Best to consult with a real estate attorney to see what recourse, if any, you have.

[BriansZ]

Does the contract state the wrong square footage? You may be able to get out of the contract if that’s your goal but I think when we had our house built the advertised square footage was an estimate and not a guarantee. We used a realtor so they would have handled this type of issue, but you may need to consult an attorney if this is something that is really concerning to you.

[Austin97]

we had discussed a similar issue in the past where someone was under contract for a house and the actual square footage was less than the advertised square footage. Some people had the view that if the space feels ok the numbers dont matter.

[CarnivalGal]

Square footage is not an exact science. Our builder has one square footage, our taxing authority has another square footage, and when we had it appraised for a refi, they came up with a third square footage. Same house, no changes. Low and high are about 100 square foot difference.

40 square feet is really not that big a deal. And changing elevation and roof line is going to change other things as well. I'm not saying your builder didn't communicate this well, but it's not a hill I would die on. And I don't think you'd really have much recourse anyway.

[Jtxg]

While not the exact same scenario, I had a similar issue years ago when selling a house. The MLS had my house square footage published to match what the appraisal district had. My appraisal when I bought it was about 40 sq ft bigger. The eventual buyer of my house had an appraisal done and came back at 28 sq ft smaller than the appraisal district. They wanted to reduce the price of the house by 28x$150(approx price per foot). I said no, they threatened to file a law suit.

Their own broker sought legal counsel, probably because I told them to back out and sign over the earnest money to me. Within a day, they were advised by their legal counsel that courts had ruled previously that your are not buying a residential homestead on a per-sq-ft basis, but on the entirety - the entire structure, fixtures, improvements, etc. Their counsel advised that if they backed out they would be forfeiting earnest money of $10,000.

I would normally work with someone, but they immediately jumped to lawyers. Worst real estate transaction ever...so much that I made certain I was not at the title company the same time as them.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by j0nes78

Hi -

We are building with a new home builder. Signed a contract with Elevation A. Executed a change order to Elevation D.

When we looked at the model house with Elevation D after signing the change order, the game room looked different. The Game room has a boxed wall and loses 40Sqft out of total 300 Sqft.

Now, this change was not in my contract (loss of Sqft). It actually reduces the overall sqft of the game room and the house.

Do i have any recourse? Builder says its permitted already, cannot change elevation.

And i need to pay for the changes to the tune of $10K.

If I am understanding this correctly, you made a change to the house (floor plan 'A' to 'D'). Based on 'D' specs, it sounds like it is slightly smaller in one room than the original 'A'; however, it does not sound like this was misrepresented to you; in fact, it sounds like there is a model home with floor plan 'D' that corresponds to what you asked for. By agreeing to the change order, you essentially agreed to the reduction in square footage. As mentioned above, I have never seen a house contract that says 'you are getting x sq ft', they all pretty much say you are getting the 'y' model home. In all likelihood, there is some language in there somewhere that says sq footage is an estimate or something similar. In any case, you agreed to the reduction in space by choosing the different floor plan and if that was critical to you, then you probably should have dug into it deeper.