Monday, May 20, 2019

How to find out your Square Meterage?

(ignore the weird changing of fonts, for some reason i can't fix it...)

Just about all land appraisal calculations revolve around the Square Meterage/Footage so it makes sense to discuss what are the ways to determine the area of your house or plot. 

Here's a list of what I know so far:



1. Surveyor - מודד   A מודד is definitely THE authority when it comes to the issue of Square Meterage for land or buildings. They bring cool tools like Total Stations and measure all kinds of things that I won't get into now. But I imagine the service is expensive and there are a number of easier sources to go to that are relatively inexpensive below and suffice for the purpose at hand.



2. Tabo - טאבו - נסח רישום מקרקעין   This is the most popular way known by the general public. Currently costs 15 Shekel and can be downloaded from here immediately. It's also probably the most inaccurate. Tabo gives sort of a snapshot of the legal registry of your property/apartment and is the highest level of judicial authority in determining ownership.


With that being said, it's actually the least likely source to be accurate when it comes to the actual area size of your property. This is because often the Tabo is the last thing to be updated administratively. Say you put in a request to add an extension to your apartment. First you'll put in a building permit request. Then you'll pay various fees. Then you'll have the building completed. And then you may have more fees and taxes to pay. And ONLY AFTER you've paid all your debts and taxes on the property will your local Municipality give you it's necessary permission needed for you to head to the Registrar (via your lawyer) and note the change in size to your apartment officially.


So often what you'll have in say an old small apartment in jerusalem where the Tabo has it at 50 SQM and it's 70 or 80 SQM. In summary, Tabo isn't the best source.



3. Building Permits היתרי בנייה  The best way to see what what your LEGAL meterage is  would be by viewing all the various היתרי בניה in your תיק בניין.  Every היתר בניה should have a טבלת שטחים on it that details for you on every floor the שטחים that were given permission to build (the newer ones will even differentiate between שטח עיקרי ושטחי שירות). That's really the best way to know at the very least what the square meterage of your place should be legally. It's also a great way of identifying anything that could be illegal that can get you in trouble with the עירייה in the future.


Note: For apartment buildings, היתרי בנייה will only list the total meterage per floor, without specifying the area for the specific apartments. you can nevertheless use the Adobe PDF Measuring tools to perform a rough estimate approximation of the areas in question.


The downside is that it can be confusing to find and wade through. It used to be only available by going yourself to the Municipality archives in the אגף הנדסה and sifting through paperwork physically. Now that more and more municipalities are digitizing their archives so that it can be viewed by anyone online. Many of the GIS systems will often overlap and point you in the direction of finding the appropriate תיקי בניין for your purposes.



4. For Apartments - תשריט בית משותף  Every apartment building with 3 or more units is registered in פנקס הבתים המשותפים (as opposed to everything else which is registered in either פנקס הזכויות or פנקס השטרות). Alongside registering the Legal contract of the condominium a.k.a. תקנון הבית המשותף, you'll find the תשריט בית משותף along with the צו רישום which should delineate the square meterage of the units. It's actually from the תשריט בית משותף that the נסח טאבו derives (in apartments) so that again it will have the same shortcomings. e.g. possible additions added legally that were never updated.


Costs currently 33 Shekel. Can be ordered here.



5. מדידת ארנונה in the absence of anything else, or maybe particularly in cases where the property is clearly not the legal permitted area, checking with the local municipalities department of ארנונה can help. they perform separate מדידות of their own (irrespective of the legality of the structures) for the purposes of collecting ארנונה. I don't know how it is throughout the nation, but i know that atleast in Jerusalem it requires the owner himself or someone who has the owner's ייפוח כוח (power of attorney) in order to be given that info).



6. Graphical Measurements  standalone structures such as houses or duplexes can sometimes be roughly measured making use of the GIS systems with the aerial views in the background. ROUGH estimate only.



7. DIY method  purchase a laser measure and measure the rooms or building yourself :)

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