# Haunted house question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 29, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157 "2020-01-29T10:54:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/1 "2020-01-29T10:54:23Z")
Lets say you live in a house with all kinds of paranormal activity. I mean real spooky things that scare your family, pets, and even visitors.
Well lets say it bothers you so bad you want to sell the house and just move.
Would you be required to disclose ghost or paranormal activity to new potential buyers?
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/2 "2020-01-29T11:09:44Z")
No, because legal contracts do not require that you list delusions that you have.
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### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/3 "2020-01-29T11:13:47Z")
A man in New York state sued in 1991 because the woman who sold him the house did not disclose that it was haunted. He won on appeal: [Wacky Wednesday: Haunted House Real Estate Lawsuit](https://kahanelaw.com/wacky-wednesday-real-estate-lawsuit-disclose-haunted-houses/)
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### Author:  [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/4 "2020-01-29T12:41:30Z")
> [@kitap](#):
>
> A man in New York state sued in 1991 because the woman who sold him the house did not disclose that it was haunted. He won on appeal: [https://kahanelaw.com/wacky-wednesday-real-estate-lawsuit-disclose-haunted-houses/](https://kahanelaw.com/wacky-wednesday-real-estate-lawsuit-disclose-haunted-houses/)
Interesting case.
A big difference was the house had a well publicized history of being haunted (being in several publications) so you cant say it was just one persons odd delusions (as Darren Garrison says above). It could be the new owner just doesnt want a house with such a reputation which could lead to strangers and ghost hunters stopping by for pictures and such.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/5 "2020-01-29T12:45:11Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#):
>
> Interesting case.
>
> A big difference was the house had a well publicized history of being haunted (being in several publications) so you cant say it was just one persons odd delusions (as Darren Garrison says above). It could be the new owner just doesnt want a house with such a reputation which could lead to strangers and ghost hunters stopping by for pictures and such.
You know, there’s a psychology that plays into this.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/6 "2020-01-29T12:46:18Z")
Laws will vary state by state in terms of what disclosures a seller is required to make, but the idea that a house is somehow ‘stigmatized’ isn’t uncommon. [Link.](“There are no states in which there is an obligation to disclose the death of a person who has deceased under natural conditions,” says attorney Matthew Reischer, CEO of [LegalAdvice.com](http://LegalAdvice.com). “However, some states impose a duty on a stigmatized home or apartment in which there has been a suicide or murder. Some states even go so far as to impose an affirmative duty on a seller if they have knowledge that their real estate is being haunted by the dead.”)
“There are no states in which there is an obligation to disclose the death of a person who has deceased under natural conditions,” says attorney Matthew Reischer, CEO of [LegalAdvice.com](http://LegalAdvice.com). “However, some states impose a duty on a stigmatized home or apartment in which there has been a suicide or murder. **Some states even go so far as to impose an affirmative duty on a seller if they have knowledge that their real estate is being haunted by the dead.** ”
Bolding mine. It doesn’t specify which states and I didn’t look further.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/7 "2020-01-29T13:40:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> No, because legal contracts do not require that you list delusions that you have.
I have heard of plausible [explanations of “haunted” houses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_house#Possible_causes) besides just delusions on the part of people living there (e.g. the presence of toxic gases that cause hallucinations).
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/8 "2020-01-29T14:16:25Z")
I have no idea of the legal ramifications, but if I were thinking of buying a house and the owner said it was haunted, I wonder if that would drive the price up, or down. I would ask them to knock, say, five thousand off the price and see what they say. If the owner actually believes there are ghosts on the premises, well, that’s [asymmetric information](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-theory-asymmetric-information-economics.asp) and that drives a lot of economic decision making.
The owner of our first house died in the master bedroom, which they disclosed. I am not sure why, since they did not claim a haunting, and it didn’t affect the price. But who cares? I suspect people have died in most older houses (our first house was built in 1927) whether the current owner knows about it or not.
The first three rules of real estate -
[ol]
[li]location[/li][li]location[/li][li]visitations from restless spirits of the underworld returning to the scenes of their earthly life[/li][/ol]
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/9 "2020-01-29T15:05:09Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> The owner of our first house died in the master bedroom, which they disclosed.
I’d be skeptical if someone told me they died in the master bedroom.
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### Author:  [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/10 "2020-01-29T16:12:39Z")
Okay. I’m a home owner, selling my place because I accept your thesis.
1. Technically NO, because there is no scientific evidence even suggesting paranormal/supernatural things are real. I would feel no obligation to disclose my unsupportable fears.
2. But since I’m selling because _I do_ have unsupportable fears I _would_ disclose them.
3. Modify the purchase price? Probably not because I would have already done so in an effort to get out.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/11 "2020-01-29T16:20:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> I’d be skeptical if someone told me they died in the master bedroom.
How about if they told you in the library, with a candlestick?
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/12 "2020-01-29T18:09:59Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#):
>
> Laws will vary state by state in terms of what disclosures a seller is required to make, but the idea that a house is somehow ‘stigmatized’ isn’t uncommon. [Link.](“There are no states in which there is an obligation to disclose the death of a person who has deceased under natural conditions,” says attorney Matthew Reischer, CEO of [LegalAdvice.com](http://LegalAdvice.com). “However, some states impose a duty on a stigmatized home or apartment in which there has been a suicide or murder. Some states even go so far as to impose an affirmative duty on a seller if they have knowledge that their real estate is being haunted by the dead.”)
>
> “There are no states in which there is an obligation to disclose the death of a person who has deceased under natural conditions,” says attorney Matthew Reischer, CEO of [LegalAdvice.com](http://LegalAdvice.com). “However, some states impose a duty on a stigmatized home or apartment in which there has been a suicide or murder. **Some states even go so far as to impose an affirmative duty on a seller if they have knowledge that their real estate is being haunted by the dead.** ”
>
> Bolding mine. It doesn’t specify which states and I didn’t look further.
I question this.
When we listed our house for sale in SCal in 2005, we were SPECIFICALLY asked by the Realtor during the signing of the listing contract if anyone had died in the house.
~VOW
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### Author:  [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/13 "2020-01-29T18:19:21Z")
In the summer you can keep AC costs down in a haunted house by installing window shades.
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### Author:  [@Declanium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declanium)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/14 "2020-01-29T18:47:47Z")
Ghosts aren’t real.
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/15 "2020-01-29T19:23:20Z")
> [@Declanium](#):
>
> Ghosts aren’t real.
Now you have hurt Casper’s feelings, and he has always been friendly.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/16 "2020-01-29T20:41:16Z")
> [@VOW](#):
>
> I question this.
>
> When we listed our house for sale in SCal in 2005, we were SPECIFICALLY asked by the Realtor during the signing of the listing contract if anyone had died in the house.
> ~VOW
Any structure used as a residence prior to WW2 [as a general date to divide the century into portions] is pretty much a positive on someone dying there - people in general didn’t go to hospitals unless something was highly serious - you tended to dwindle and die of old age, die of diseases like influenza or pneumonia. Realistically, without antibiotics there wasn’t much a hospital could do that couldn’t be done at home other than IV feeding and 24 hour nurses to change diapers and trot bedpans and dispense what meds were available that you didn’t tend to get and keep at home. I can think of offhand at least 4 people that passed in the house my parents had when I was born [we didn’t move there til I was 5, he was duty stationed in Germany my first 5 years] My grandfather passed in hospital in 1974 and my grandmother in hospital in 79 - my grandfather had had a heart attack, and grandmother had fallen and broken her hip, and passed on the table having a pin put in. Conversation in family was that pretty much everybody previous passed either in combat or in bed.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/17 "2020-01-29T20:50:29Z")
> [@Biotop](#):
>
> In the summer you can keep AC costs down in a haunted house by installing window shades.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Go to your room, and think about what you’ve done!
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/18 "2020-01-29T23:35:01Z")
> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> Any structure used as a residence prior to WW2 [as a general date to divide the century into portions] is pretty much a positive on someone dying there
My house wasn’t built until 1964, and two people have died in it. (My grandfather and great-grandfather.)
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/19 "2020-01-30T01:16:21Z")
I didn’t find out about the haunting in a house I bought until the neighbor lady told me. She was certainly convinced. If what she said was accurate it was quite interesting. There was one incident that occurred when I lived there that was certainly odd. But it was a very comfortable house to live in.
Dennis
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haunted-house-question/847157/20 "2020-01-30T01:35:56Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#):
>
> It could be the new owner just doesnt want a house with such a reputation which could lead to strangers and ghost hunters stopping by for pictures and such.
There’s a Wikipedia article regarding this case.
> **[Stambovsky v. Ackley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stambovsky_v._Ackley)**
>
> Stambovsky v. Ackley, 169 A.D.2d 254 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991), commonly known as the Ghostbusters ruling, is a case in the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, that held that a house, which the owner had previously advertised to the public as haunted by ghosts, legally was haunted for the purpose of an action for rescission brought by a subsequent purchaser of the house. Because of its unique holding, the case has been frequently printed in textbooks on contracts and property law and widely...
This was probably a stronger reason that affected the appellate court’s decision:
> [@](#):
>
> The court noted that regardless of whether the house was truly haunted or not, the fact that the house had been widely reported as being haunted greatly affected its value.
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