California Surveyors Forums

What do you do to prepare airspace plans for new construction condominiums. Do you rely soley on the approve architects plans? Do you measure all the units?
Sample one of each type of unit? Visit the site and just eyball it for gross varitions for the plans?

Thanks for your help

I think it comes down to how you are showing the airspace and what you are putting in your certification. I’ve seen some pretty tricky verbiage on airspace exhibits to get away from measuring every single unit.

Ben

Thanks Ben, I appreciate your input.

In the past I’ve been creating airspace exhibits that show the extents of the condo excluding any interior walls. I’ve relied on the architecturals, I’ve measured every unit type, I’ve checked the exterior wall dimensions with the interior units, but I have not measured every single unit and created separate airspace exhibits for each. I have also put +- signs on the interior dimensions. In my opinion, a lot can be accomplished by the notes you add to the exhibits. This makes sure your intent is clear.

When relying upon approved architects plans, make sure to note that the actual building is the monument as constructed. We make not warranty to the precise square footage of each unit, but rather the unit does or will indeed exist as to real property.

When preparing condo conversion plans, we have, in the past, measured each and every unit using one of those electronic square footage devices.

If we trust the builder, we only measure a "few" units.

I really dont like slapping "blind" measurements on condo plans but the timing between sales, map recording, bank financing etc, doesn't allow time to measure each unit. I'm certain to bet that there's plenty of time to sue the Surveyor, should a unit bee too small.

one of our notes reads like this:

"Dimensions shown for airspace are subject to the tolerances of the construction industry, and are shown for reference only to identify each living unit."

The standard around here is to measure each unit, and I've done this for over 200 units for just one project. There where some "field changes" to a minority of the units.

I believe that there is at least lawsuit filed for each Condo project in CA, so the thought locally is that if our maps are correct, then people can't sue us for mis-representing the airspace. I've done this at three different companies.

We take the Arch. plans for the Dept. of Real Estate review, but the final Condo Plan that is recorded at the County Recorder's Office is based on field measurements.