Cadastral measurement

A flat exists in law not on the day its walls go up but on the day it has been measured and registered as a separate item of real property. That threshold explains a great deal about buying off a developer: why a preliminary agreement comes first, why the area can shift slightly, and why the notary cannot certify anything earlier.

What cadastral measurement is

Cadastral measurement is the procedure that establishes an object's official data: areas, the layout of rooms, height, year of construction, intended use. It runs under the Law on the Real Property Cadastre and the cadastre regulations. The output is a cadastral file with a plan, and that file is where the data in the cadastre and in the register extract come from.

It is not the design. The design shows what was planned; the cadastral data show what was built and measured. Where the two disagree, legal weight sits with the cadastre.

Who measures, and what the buyer should ask for

Measurement is carried out by a qualified surveyor, and the data are checked and registered by Registrų centras. In a new building the developer organises this, so for a buyer it is not a task but a document to request.

Two pages of that file matter to you: the plan with dimensions and the table of areas. The plan is worth having before signature, because it shows more than the square metres — where the load-bearing walls run, where the shafts are, and whether the layout matches what you were shown.

When the flat becomes a separate object

The sequence runs like this. Construction is completed in the manner the Law on Construction prescribes. Cadastral measurement follows, and the data for the building and its individual premises are entered in the register. Only then does the flat exist as an object with a unique number, and only then can a notarial purchase-sale deed about it be signed.

Until that day the purchase runs on other instruments: a reservation and a preliminary agreement with a payment schedule. That is not a developer's preference or a trick — there is simply no way to sign a deed about an object that does not yet exist.

Differences in the final figure

The final measured area can differ slightly from the design figure. That is ordinary and usually amounts to fractions of a square metre. The problem never comes from the difference itself; it comes from a contract that does not say what happens next.

So the contract needs three things: the basis on which the price is recalculated, the deviation treated as normal, and the difference from which the buyer may stop performing. Without them, a buyer who meets a large discrepancy has no clear footing to discuss the price at all.

Alterations after the fact

Cadastral data are not permanent. If the flat is later altered — partitions moved, rooms joined or divided, a balcony glazed — the changes have to reach the cadastre, and some of that work needs permits and the neighbours' consent in the first place.

For a buyer that turns into one straightforward check: compare the cadastral plan with what you see on site. A layout that differs from the plan means something was changed and not registered, and who answers for it is a separate question. Either way it is a question for the seller before signature, not after.

This article is general information and is not legal or technical advice. Your flat's data are established by its cadastral file, and the requirements of the procedure by cadastre legislation and Registrų centras.