萬國法律事務所

With respect to the long unresolved issue of the artificial expansion of the dimension and area in real estate properties by construction companies, Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior (MOI) indicated recently that the Executive Yuan has decided that the eaves and rain covers of pre-sold housing will be registered in the land registry, but the area will not be taken into account in the calculation of the per unit price of the property. This decision seeks to balance the stability of the land registry system and the protection of consumer rights and will be incorporated into the Standard Contract for the Purchase and Sale of Pre-sold Housing on 1 May 2011.

The MOI has also drafted a universal definition of eaves and rain covers in terms of both structure and dimension in order to prevent construction companies from designing unwarranted eaves and rain covers to artificially expand the dimensions and areas of properties.

With respect to the issue of whether eaves and rain covers should be registered, the MOI pointed out that such structures have long been registered since 1982 and currently there are more than 520,000 households that have registered the same as existing property. A change in the registration method risks affecting the stability and consistency of the land registration system and the current registration method will thus be maintained.

The recent changes to the Standard Contract for the Purchase and Sale of Pre-sold Housing constitutes the second wave of reform of the regulations governing the sale of pre-sold housing after the first set of changes was implemented in May 2010, in which the calculations for the area of the main buildings, attached buildings, common areas and sale price were ordered to be detailed. In May 2011, in addition to the pre-sold housing performance guarantee mechanism, the calculation of the area of eaves and rain covers will also be clearly detailed and regulated to protect the rights of consumers.