Buying a presale - builder delivers less square footage than advertised?

[Gnomes]

I am in the process of buying a presale condo. I was reading the contract and came across this:

If the actual strata lot is short of 3% of preliminary advertised square footage, I get no compensation from the developer.
If the actual square footage is short of more than 10%, I have the option of not buying the condo.
If the actual square footage is short by 4-10%, then the developer will reimburse me by this formula:

Rebate = (0.97 - Actual square foot/advertised square foot) x purchase price

My home is $429,900 for 779square foot. That is about $550/sq feet.

Under the first scenario, I can lose up to 23square feet.
Third scenario
-> if I lose 4%, that is 31square feet lost. Rebate I will get (as according to formula) is $4210. Rebate of $135 per square feet lost.
-> if I lose 9%, that is 70square feet lost. Rebate I will get is $25733. That is 367/square feet.

Both of which is still a rip off (under the original $550/square feet bought). I would like to know how often a developer will deliver less square feet of live space during completion. The developer is not as well known (Marcon). Thanks in advanced.

[quasi]

It's probably just to cover their ass and set a rememdy should for some reason they have to alter your condo slightly. When doing construction sometimes things come up where you might have to move a wall slightly, sometimes only a 1/4" sometimes a few inches. I don't think there advertising a certain footage knowing there going to sell you less then you bargained for.

If they didn't have set rememdies in place (if there was some sort of discrepancy) it could just cause a bunch of legal headaches. This way everything is already in wriiting, nobody has to lawyer up and if there is a problem the solution and compensations are already in place.

[Bonka]

It is quite common for total square footage on presale units to shrink slightly than advertised, irregardless of developer, but they do tend to fall within the acceptable range of at least 97% of the advertised space. Minor changes do occur during construction as Quasi mentioned and it has become common enough that buyers should expect a slight decrease in space once construction is completed.

[Gridlock]

I was not impressed when I went through our actual property after buying presale.

My gf had bought it with ex before we started dating, so she and I went and toured the show home. Beautiful.

Went to the actual place and suddenly the beautiful subway tile backsplash in the kitchen is now only 3 courses high.

We go in the bathroom and I'm standing on lino.

I say to the lady thats taking us through, "why am I standing on lino?"

Oh it got changed.

Right. Tile expensive and lino is cheap as hell. Of course you changed it.

Oh, and the paint was shitty.

But at least it was the same size.

[Bonka]

Showrooms ALWAYS have most if not all the upgraded options installed in addition to cleverly sized pieces of furniture. That's how they sucker in buyers who can't look past cosmetic features. Most of my clients are always surprised on what they actually get is 4 blank walls. All of a sudden, the included granite countertops and/or stainless steel appliances don't look as nice.

Was tile something standard or extra you had to pay for? These days tiled bathroom floors are usually standard and the purchase contract should make mention of the developer substituting equivalent materials (ie: different design/colour, etc). Tile to linoleum isn't an equivalent material.

[Gridlock]

You know, the entire affair was so screwed up, I can't even recall details.

My gf and her ex bought it as a presale. They broke up. We started dating. I inherit a presale.

So I wasn't there to go over the contract during signing as that would be awkward.

So I get up to speed on past events, and then the mortgage almost falls through on the last minute because they didn't know she was self-employed and so we go out there, and back, out and back.

So to do the final inspection on this goddamned little townhouse from hell was not a treat. I wasn't happy with the paint at all. You could see bad repairs and touchups and the tile situation was even worse.

The best part is, I'm a contractor so I know what to look for and paint is my pet peeve. I hate shitty paint.

[Realtor]

Plenty of things to be aware of with Pre sales.

Read the fine print and get everything in writing!

The developer paid tons of money to their lawyers to write for them; guess who the contract is in favor of.