If a house is haunted & you are selling it....?

does it have to be disclosed to the potential buyer by law?
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Should it be legal everywhere to disclose this information?

"Undocumented features" of properties have a way of coming back to haunt the previous owner irrespective of what ghoulish apparitions might be lurking inside various closets. A good real estate agent should be able to help you turn your most fearsome nightmare about your property into a marketable asset.

For example,

This house has real character - specificially Mr. and Mrs. John Twiddlewaddler circa 1847.

Never worry about neighbour watch again. This house has built-in monitoring.

Worried about living on your own? There is no fear of that with this hot property.

Are you looking for a house with soul?

If you are the type that likes to redecorate and move your furniture around every so often have we got the house for you.

Worried about your air conditioning bills? This house is one of the few on the block with radiant cooling.

See? --- No problem :-)
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Oh --- we are actually citing case law. Okay Let's backtrack a bit.

Beyond the law - most real estate ethics boards have guidelines as to what needs to be disclosed and what doesn't as part of an agreement. While I sort of agree with your comment about Atantic, he does have a certain point. It is the job of a real estate agent to represent the vendor's best interests and sometimes what a vendor perceives as being a problem and what actually is a problem are two different things. This is why we have house appraisers, building inspectors, and real estate agents to independently verify the state and condition of the property.

Any material fact about the house which has clear documented evident needs to be disclosed. If a material fact cannot be represented though documented evidence or prior knowledge - such as the presence of a spiritual haunting - then those items may be considered to be subjective and are not necessarily material to the sale of the property.

So for example, if the house 3 doors down got sucked into a sinkhole and the city engineers came around to inspect other properties in the area to ensure their safety and worthiness - that fact needs to be disclosed. If a house 3 blocks away had the same problem, no city inspection was deemed required, and a building inspection didn't turn up evidence of the potental for a similar problem to occur, then its not contingent on the vendor to deliberately put information into a listing that will unfairly reduce the value of the property.

All defects must be disclosed, regardless their nature.

Every state law is different. In some states you may not have to disclose much at all. In Texas you only have to disclose deaths if somehow they were caused by the condition of the house. I would encourage a seller to disclose any death that was publicized or gruesome. But an old person dieing in their sleep is apparently not required in Texas.

If you believe that your house is haunted then maybe you would feel better disclosing that. I think that most people do not believe in ghosts so I think it would be hard to require something like that unless it is on the news or something like that.

If I hear noises from time to time, I may think it is a cat outside the window, you may think it is a ghost.

Ive never heard that was a law, but I guess I would want to know if a place was haunted before I bought it.

It does not have to be disclosed in NJ.

I think telling potential buyers would be the right thing to do. I would want to know.

I wouldn't want to get the law involved though, just complicates things.

The other thing is, if you purchase a home and do any major structural refurbishing, I've heard that can trigger spirits.....and the previous owners might not have been aware that there were dormant spirits on their property.

I was told that you do not have to disclose if the house is haunted.

If you sell thru an agent, ask them they would know. If the buyer comes back and ask if you knew it was haunted just say you never saw or heard anything strange the entire time you lived there.

My grandfather was convinced that the house they were living in was haunted because a lot of unexplained problems occurred in the house, toilets that were never used backed up, kitchen cabinet doors wide open when they would come downstairs in the morning, I can guarantee when he sold he never said a word to anyone that he thought it was haunted.

In California, yes. In other states it depends.

You do not have to disclose something that has not been pr oven to exist

You are not legally obligated to disclose it because the definate presence of "ghosts" has never been proven.

No. You are also not obligated to inform them of pixies, transient vampires, curses, smurfs ,hell-mouths, enchanted objects (unless it satisfies your state's definition of a 'fixture'), trolls, gremlins ,compassionate conservatives, a feasible universal health care plan, or unicorns.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. BOO!!

No, there's no statute pertaining to haunted homes - as to disclosure about deaths in the home I'm attaching a link re death disclosure in California. It's short, one page. http://www.wwlaw.com/death.htm

I would think not. First there is no such thing. and if there was they would have to be the first people to ever prove it.

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