Bad Survey Report- what is reasonable?

[Jeremy Segermeister]

I’m in escrow on a lot to build my dream home. I live in the Bay Area, so everything is relative.

The listing and disclosures had the lot size as 73’ wide by 120’ deep, at 7,854 square feet. We landed at $990k purchase price.

I spent the money to have the lot surveyed and hired an architect. The surveyor found out that the lot is actually 63’ feet wide and 7595.92sqft.

I feel like this is a material change and I should ask for a reduction. What would be a fair way to calculate the reduction? Cost per sqft?

[Account Closed]

I would ask for a reduction in price based on square foot.  Ten feet width makes a difference in how much clearance you need between any structure and fence line, too.  So you could easily make a case that this 10 foot difference in what you were promised and what you actually got will seriously affect what you intended to do with the property.

Even beyond that, though, is just the simple fact that you were led to believe you were buying a property that was about 1200 sq feet more than what you actually got.  Therefore, they need to compensate you for that.  This is definitely a material breach, in my opinion.  So you could just get out of the deal, if you wanted to.