When planning to build a building, how does the Land departments calculate the sqm for the building?

When planning to build a structural building, prior to the commencement of the construction, you are required to apply for a building permit, which you (and your architect) would be required to provide the blue prints (building plan including its dimension, material used) of the building to your local municipal council for approval. The Municipal would have their own team of architectures to appraise plan with respect to environmental and safety factors and as well as in accordance to the Building Control Act B.E.2522.

Once you have been granted with a Building Permit and the construction is completed, you would then apply for a House Number/Building Number (i.e. House Registration Booklet) for the designated building.

Due to the limited network between government sectors, the Land Office may not be aware that your designated land has a building situated on that property. Therefore, when you are processing the land ownership transfer, it is recommended to declare this information to the land office. If the Land Office later realize that that land has a building, you may punished for making false report to the government officials. For Bangkok such information would be online and available to the government sectors, but for other provinces, it may not, but their offices are usually located nearby and/or next to each other and it would be convenient for them to double check.

The procedure would slightly be different in the case if that building was to be constructed as condominium, where each unit would be issued with a Condominium Ownership Certificate, this is where the Land Office (Property Survey and Measurement Team) would have to physically measure the size of each unit and to recorded that into the said certificate.

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