[Case] According to the sales advertisement, Mr. Gao selected a set of 120 square meters commercial housing in a "high-end" residential district. The height of the building agreed in the sales contract is 2.8 meters. After checking in, Mr. Gao always felt that the house was not 2.8 meters high. After measuring, Mr. Gao found that the actual height of the house was only 2.58 meters. He believes that developers are fraudulent in promoting sales and signing contracts. The developer explained that the 2.8 meters agreed in the contract is the height, not the clear height, but the height after adding half the thickness of the upper and lower walls. Mr. Gao then asked the lawyer: does the developer's statement make sense? What are the regulations on the height and clear height of commercial housing in China?
[Lawyer's statement] The height of a house can be calculated by "meter" or "floor", and the height of each floor has certain requirements in design, which is called the height of the floor. The story height refers to the vertical dimension between the surface of the lower floor or the upper surface (or lower surface) of the floor and the upper surface (or lower surface) of the adjacent upper floor. Clear height refers to the distance between the lower floor surface or the upper floor surface and the lower surface of the upper floor. The relationship between clear height and floor height can be expressed as "clear height = floor height-floor thickness", that is, the difference between floor height and floor thickness is called clear height.
It is generally believed that the higher the building height, the greater the indoor temperature difference, the better the air convection and the more comfortable the human body feels, but the thermal insulation and energy saving of the building is relatively poor. So, what is the building height stipulated by the state? The Technical Essentials of Healthy Housing Construction, edited by the National Housing and Living Environment Engineering Center, points out that the net height of the living room should not be less than 2.5 meters; In the "Modular Coordination Standard for Residential Buildings" edited by the Ministry of Construction, it is stipulated that the height priority size series is 2.0~3.0 meters; The Code for Residential Design stipulates that the height of ordinary residential buildings should be 2.80 meters. The indoor clear height of bedroom and living room (hall) should not be less than 2.10m, and the local clear height should not be less than 2.10m. When the space in the sloping roof is used as the bedroom and living room (hall), the indoor clear height of 1/2 area should not be less than 2 2. 10/0m. The reason why the height of residential buildings is controlled below 2.80m is "not only to control investment, but also to save land, energy, materials and housing resources". In addition, the Notice of the Ministry of Construction on Relevant Issues Concerning the Calculation of Building Construction Area and the Registration of House Ownership stipulates that the building height (storey height) with a building area of 2.20m or more. Therefore, when the buyer signs a commercial housing sales contract with the developer, it should stipulate the building height or clear height. For example, the "height" specified in the contract refers to the structural elevation on the drawings (referring to the elevation marked in the structural design), that is, "clear height+floor thickness". In this case, when Mr. Gao signed the Commercial Housing Sales Contract, if he saw that the planning and design provided by the developer indicated that the height of the residential building was 2.80 meters, and the developer also agreed in the contract that "the height of the building was 2.8 meters", it could not be considered that the developer had committed fraud. Because the developer will not change the drawings approved by the construction and planning departments, there may be errors in the actual construction of the construction team. Moreover, according to the location, span, building materials and floor thickness of the house, plus the thickness of cement slurry on the surface, the net height of the built house is also different. Therefore, if the floor height agreed in the contract is 2.8 meters, which is consistent with the marking in the planning and design drawings provided by the developer, then it is normal to actually measure the indoor height (that is, the clear height). Because the story height and clear height are two different concepts, Mr. Gao can't simply judge the lack of story height by the clear height measured indoors.
If the relevant departments confirm that the building height is insufficient, how can buyers claim compensation? Commercial housing sales contracts have provisions, according to the contract; If there is no provision in the contract, the buyer can negotiate with the developer to solve it; If negotiation fails, it can be solved through legal channels, and the developer can be required to return a house or bear the liability for breach of contract according to the actual situation.
[Lawyer's Reminder] In practice, the purchaser can ask the developer to take the floor plan of the house as an annex to the contract. If the floor plan is not drawn to scale, the developer can be required to mark the detailed dimensions, such as the position of doors and windows, the thickness of walls, the height of houses (clear height), the orientation of rooms, etc., to avoid disputes in the future.