# Could you knowingly live in a house where a corpse has decomposed?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 15, 2007, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111 "2007-06-15T11:58:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/1 "2007-06-15T11:58:09Z")
Provoked by that thread about a house put up for sale inadvertently to include a decomposed corpse…
Could you live in a house where you knew that a person had died and laid decomposing for months and months?
I don’t think I could - for me, it would be the notion that products of their decomposition would probably have become permanently incorporated into the structure of the building (fluids seeped into joists - stuff like that).
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### Author:  [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/2 "2007-06-15T12:54:19Z")
I can picture you furiously mopping, muttering:
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!” :mad:
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### Author:  [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/3 "2007-06-15T13:11:06Z")
I could. Especially if the decomposing corpse situation caused me to get the house cheaper.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/4 "2007-06-15T13:23:50Z")
Cheaper, you say? I’ll take one.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/5 "2007-06-15T13:26:01Z")
Do I hear a beating heart under the floorboards at all times?
Otherwise, yes, no problem. And following THespos’ lead, I would milk it for all I can to get a rebate on it.
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/6 "2007-06-15T13:30:23Z")
I did. Sorta. Well, in a cheesy little apartment, where I found out the guy in the place above me had been dead for over three week. Nobody notcied.
In the actual place…how can I care?I have no idead what went on in the places in the places I move into. Maybe somebody was murders. Maybe they passed into that goodnight. Maybe they held Klan meetings there. If they get the pentecles off the walls, the blood off the floor, the chalk outline out of the carpet (“Of that? The former tenant was an artist”) well how am I going to to worry about it? Who knows what’s gone on in the place you’re buying? Including things that don’t leave mares. Do you think the realator is going to tell you? We’d all have to keep building new houses every time somebody died.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/7 "2007-06-15T13:35:20Z")
That’s why I specified _knowingly_.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/8 "2007-06-15T17:01:43Z")
As long as two stipulations are met:
1. The price on the place gets lowered a bit (not _strictly_ necessary, but I think enough people would expect this that I’d push for it simply because I like saving money).
2. I’d prefer it if the decomposing body in question were removed before we move in.
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### Author:  [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/9 "2007-06-15T17:05:16Z")
Shoot, for the right price I’ll hose 'em off myself.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/10 "2007-06-15T17:07:23Z")
A few months before we bought our house, the elderly man who lived in the house next door was killed by a live-in tenant, who then kept his body in the basement for months afterwards (while she still lived there with her kids). Eventually, the neighbors got suspicious and the woman was arrested. A terribly sad story.
We’re approaching our 3 year anniversary in the house and the house next door is still vacant. For at least a year, not a single bit of work had been done to it (and there were quite a lot of serious issues that needed immediate attention), but slowly the person who assumed control of the estate has been doing renovations little by little. It’ll probably be another 6 months or more, but I suspect eventually the house will be back on the market. The disclosure business will be interesting, to say the least.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/11 "2007-06-15T17:28:33Z")
Depends. Can I play Lawn Darts with the chalk outline?
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/12 "2007-06-15T17:51:27Z")
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You’re MADE of decomposition products. I’d take the house, and look for some savings, though not necessarily much.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/13 "2007-06-15T17:56:39Z")
[QUOTE=lieu]
Depends. Can I play Lawn Darts with the chalk outline?
[/QUOTE]
Of course not. Lawn darts were banned years ago. 😉
I wouldn’t think anything of it myself. Certainly the place would need to be cleaned and disinfected, and may even require new flooring, but that’s part of the negotiation.
It’s no different than if a pile of steaks were left out.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/14 "2007-06-15T18:11:34Z")
I had a T.A. in college who lived in an apartment where a brutal murder had taken place. He got cheaper rent than the other units around him. He just had to let detectives in once or twice for some follow-up investigation…
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### Author:  [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/15 "2007-06-15T18:19:58Z")
Oh, sure, I’d live there. So long as the smell had gone away, no worries! Any affected parts of the house (floorboards, etc.) can easily be replaced.
And as a special benefit, I’d have a ghost to invoke whenever the kids got out of line.
But I should also mention that my house over the years has hosted many a decomposed corpse. I found one under the dishwasher when I went to replace it. Just a question of scale, really.
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### Author:  [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/16 "2007-06-15T19:08:39Z")
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]
It’ll probably be another 6 months or more, but I suspect eventually the house will be back on the market. The disclosure business will be interesting, to say the least.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve got a house on the market. I am 100% sure there was no spot on the disclosure form that said “check here if house has contained decomposing human flesh.” Then again, real estate laws vary by state.
On a serious note, I wonder what the legal responsibilities are in a case like that. If you’re selling a house and you know someone turned to cat food in the living room, are you legally required to point that out? Or is the info more of a “need to know” basis? I think I would be just fine not knowing, as long as there was no remaining evidence.
I was musing last night that I know for a fact that many babies were born in my new house. Logically I’m sure people have died in it also. This doesn’t bother me, but I assume they were removed shortly thereafter. What I’m most concerned with is eliminating the smell of cat pee.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/17 "2007-06-15T19:20:26Z")
IANAL or in real estate but I believe it varies by state. FWII, in California you must disclose “Material Facts”, anything that may affect the buyer’s decision to purchase or to buy it, such as a death in the house within the last 3 years. We had a situation in our neighborhood (Texas) along these lines. A young girl committed suicide in her car in the driveway and her distraught parents moved away because of it shortly thereafter. They didn’t tell the new buyers anything about it. Months later they found out and were rather upset. We heard they were thinking of suing but I know nothing further of the details, legality, etc.
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/18 "2007-06-15T19:28:04Z")
You’re required to disclose things that will affect the resale value of the house. Whether this would be such a case, I don’t know, but it seems like it could be.
Remember when they caught the BTK killer? Several people were interviewed who had bought houses in which he had killed people, and who had no idea. I don’t know if anything came of it in those cases.
There was also a case, commonly covered in law school property courses, in which a new guy in (IIRC) a small New England town bought, without knowing of its reputation, a house that had a reputation for being haunted. He sued, claiming that they should have disclosed this before, and the judge agreed; not because the house was haunted, but because the _reputation_ was an undisclosed fact that would materially affect the resale value.
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### Author:  [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/19 "2007-06-15T19:29:25Z")
Although I would have no problem living in a house someone had died/been killed/ committed suicide in, I am going to have to draw the line at decomposition.
And yes, I realize it’s all natures way and blah, blah, blah, but that isn’t going to keep me from thinking of corpse juice every time I smell something funny. God forbid I accidentally step in something in the middle of the night. I would have to wash with bleach.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-knowingly-live-in-a-house-where-a-corpse-has-decomposed/408111/20 "2007-06-15T19:30:43Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston]
As long as two stipulations are met:
1. The price on the place gets lowered a bit (not _strictly_ necessary, but I think enough people would expect this that I’d push for it simply because I like saving money).
2. I’d prefer it if the decomposing body in question were removed before we move in.
[/QUOTE]
If the price was lowered enough I wouldn’t even care much about 2. After I hulaled it out I’d want to do some major cleaning though.
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