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I'm in the process of putting my place on the market and found out that my place is actually smaller than what was listed by the selling agent 5 years ago.
The agent listed it about 350 sf more that what the public records show! Since the public records' SF is based on the master deed, I did some calculations from the floor plan and found the deed to be wrong.
Basically:
Selling agent shows: 1400
Public record shows: 1050 (based off wrong calcuations)
Master recalculation shows: 1150
Obviously that's going to work against me now that I try to put my place on the market. Is it too late to do anything about this? Can i get the public record changed? ... Also, the broker is still in business. :P
I'm kicking myself right now for not realizing this and trying to do something about this sooner so please be abit sensitive in your response. Thanks!
Nope, public record cant be changed. Hopefully the buyer wont see it - but prob will. I sold a supposeduly 700 sq ft condo and about 2 weeks before closing, the buyer states it is really 640 sq ft and said they want 5K knocked off the price. We settled on 2 K off price.
I'm in the process of putting my place on the market and found out that my place is actually smaller than what was listed by the selling agent 5 years ago.
The agent listed it about 350 sf more that what the public records show! Since the public records' SF is based on the master deed, I did some calculations from the floor plan and found the deed to be wrong.
Basically:
Selling agent shows: 1400
Public record shows: 1050 (based off wrong calcuations)
Master recalculation shows: 1150
Obviously that's going to work against me now that I try to put my place on the market. Is it too late to do anything about this? Can i get the public record changed? ... Also, the broker is still in business. :P
I'm kicking myself right now for not realizing this and trying to do something about this sooner so please be abit sensitive in your response. Thanks!
Misrepresenting facts in real estate is FRAUD and aside from your damages the law is that you are automatically rewarded tripple damages in New Jersey when fraud is proven. In your situation that doesn't seem hard to prove. I don't know what statue of limitations is on this but I would consult with a "real estate" attorney and not assume nothing can be done.
Just be careful... unless it was marked (A) on the listing as the Assessed square footage, you have no leg to stand on... any other number is an estimate by either the owner or their realtor... your realtor should have explained that to you when you were looking at listings.
I would also pull out your condominium documents. The Master Deed should have an accurate square footage for each unit as filed with the state when built or converted.
Many times listings that include sq ft also include a disclaimer that says something to the effect of it is up to the buyer to validate the number. This language is there specifically because realtors were getting sued over incorrect numbers. Hard to imagine any realtor would leave themselves open to a lawsuit over it these days.
I know this thread is old, but I wonder what exactly the OP had to prove what the realtor listed the sq ft as.
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