Square footage of house smaller than advertised

[EarthSight]

I went to see a house recently and had to put in an offer much quicker than I would have otherwise, due to the estate agent telling me on Monday morning that the place had already received an offer over the weekend after it was listed on Friday afternoon. The area is pretty (countryside) but very deprived and far away from main centres of work (I'm at the bottom of the ladder practically in terms of affordability). It surprised me that not only someone got a viewing on the weekend (when they are almost always fully booked on Saturday you're booking the same week). Instead of viewing the place once or twice again and scrutinising a bit more before making an offer, I went ahead and made an offer.

In the viewing I thought the place felt smaller than their advertised sq meters, but thought it might just be me. However, since then I've found out that the place is about 16% smaller on the EPC than advertised on Rightmove. I knows EPCs can be wrong at times, but I'm inclined to believe this one's accurate due to my experience of viewing houses of a similar size. I would look pass 2-3 meters, but this is 15 sq meters in a house that's already small.

I now feel like a mug because I made the offer (the exact asking price) partly on the listed square footage, and the estate agent is pressing me to move with the memorandum of sale. I asked them to explain the discrepancy, at which point they sounded a bit awkward and said that when they put properties on Rightmove it generates the sq footage based on nearby properties. I could understand if there was a much larger house nearby, but it's in a row of identical sized terraced houses....so I think that's a bit odd. They didn't apologise but in my view it is their responsibility as the estate agent to manage their own listings and display accurate information, and not inaccurate one which might mislead buyers.

I could renegotiate, but I don't want to be seen as someone who would deliberately gazunder a seller and risk the estate agent not being cooperative with viewings in future.

Any thoughts?

Can you withdraw your offer?

Does it have a basement or attic? EPC is calculated on livable space but estate agents often include things like cellars and attic storage spaces.

It's a buyers market
Buying a house is a huge investment
If you don't want it pull out now before you or the seller waste any more time
The estate agent will work with you because if they sell any house they get a commission
Moving forward dint put in an offer until you're sure ...agents use panic tactics to make a sale

I'd try and renegotiate and if they don't accept and you don't think it's worth it walk away.

due to the estate agent telling me on Monday morning that the place had already received an offer over the weekend after it was listed on Friday afternoon. The area is pretty (countryside) but very deprived and far away from main centres of work

I doubt they'd had an offer - sounds like EA flannel to me.

OMG such a convoluted op for such a simple question. Withdraw your offer if you don't want the house now that you know the true square footage.

Rude. I gave those details so to minimise drip feeding.

The estate agents have only measured and included the individual room sizes of the main living spaces, which is coming up as around 8 sq meters less than even the EPC. Yes, it does seem to have some kind of attic space, but it's not converted, wasn't listed in the advertisement, and I have doubts that it's high enough to accommodate someone standing up.

Yes I did think that could be the case here. I'm usually resistant to that, but I suppose I got panicky due to getting tired of looking for houses.

Have a second viewing and take a tape measure.

I literally have no idea the square footage of my house.
You have to ask yourself is the house you saw worth the offer price to you - regardless of numbers on paper.
If it is move ahead if not pull the offer.

Your response to withdraw/renegotiate based on a truth which has now come to light is reasonable and proportionate.
Don't get into a blame game, just be factual, 'well of course my offer was based on information which is now shown to be incorrect, my revised decision is X'
Don't apologise or explain, just be calm and objective.

^ this

You made the offer before you viewed or after?

Is it the difference of hallways? I'm a Chartered Surveyor, although I don't do residental properties. There are different bases of measurement. For an EPC they would likely include hallways, bathrooms and starcases, but an estate agent wouldn't necessarily measure these.

Withdraw your offer or renegotiate. But I certainly wouldn't say it's because square footage is smaller than advertised when you offered AFTER viewing.

Might be. I've just added up the individual rooms, as opposed to looking at the EPC, and it looks like the discrepancy is even larger. It's about 25 square meters difference from the advertised main figure on their Rightmove listing, not 15!

After :/ Just felt pressured to do it then.

Ask to view it again, take a tape measure and work out which number is correct. 15sqm is a lot in a terrace. 25sqm is ridiculous.

Are there floor plans? The measurements for THAT house should be on it, and a total figure for habitable space, and a second figure for something like a garage or storage (like eaves).
If there is a discrepancy, it's not 'gazundering' to renegotiate.

If you made the offer after you viewed surely you deemed it reasonable for the space available, regardless of the dimensions. By all means raise it as an anomaly in the advert but it is not really room for much negotiation. You can withdraw your offer if needs be.

I know but I'm not sure if there's any point because I'm almost certain that the liveable space (excluding stairs, tiny porch and very small corridor) is no more than 68 square meters. That's based on adding up their own measurements the rooms sizes. I had to guess how much the kitchen extension was from the other measurements because they've missed that off their own PDF brochure and Rightmove listing, which seriously made me 🤨.

I've very rarely seen this. It's almost like they want to make it as difficult as possible for people to add up those individual measurements to compare it to the much overstated overall square footage.

A house in the row that is very similar when for about 30k extra, which was a bit of an anomaly and I think it was bought by wealthier people than what's typical for the area. When I looked at this one, I did think that it looked like a house that should be around 15k cheaper...and now I'm starting to think that I'm right, especially based on this size aspect. I was willing to overpay by 5k, even 10k....but 15k? Not so sure.

Hi, it's definitely false advertising. You shouldn't feel like a mug. False advertising is pretty serious especially in the estate agency world. By law, all agents are signed up to a property redress scheme and if you check it, they will specifically tell you that false advertising is an offence by estate agents.

The house I'm purchasing is advertised 3.7 square metres more than what the surveyor measured for us. We aren't too fussed about this, it's like 1.85m x 1.85m space. It's annoying, but we won't complain. We'd complain about 15 square metres though because for many people that's the size of their dining room or a small double bedroom. I'd be pissed

check this from The Property redress scheme - they literally will compensate you if you were financially affected! https://www.theprs.co.uk/Resource/ViewFileIfExist/122

I think that's a fair argument, but it was the larger than average square footage that spurred me to book the viewing as quickly as I did, because location wise, it's not great for me otherwise. It a real selling point, because I couldn't give a hoot about the number of rooms. Anyone can put a partition in, but you can't easily enlarge a space.

I'm thinking of saying to them that I'm withdrawing the offer. If the owners are interested in having me make a reduced offer, then I'm happy to do that, but I suspect they will go for the other offer they've had (if it's real and the estate agent hasn't just made that up).