Hiding bodies?
Bolding mine.
Really???
That is a legal requirement? That affects the house in no way whatever.
Older houses have probably had several people die in them.
Are you required to disclose if any babies were born in the house? That is also a once in a lifetime event that has no affect on the house.
That does seem strange, but strange people make strange laws.
My tenant was concerned that my Mother had died in the house. I explained that she didn’t.
That was very kind of them.
That’s odd to me that the seller didn’t disclose that upfront.
Regarding the death on property clause, that is a disclosure requirement where I am too.
For two houses I was told about water problems in the basement. First house by the neighbor who built the house (I wasn’t buying from him, there was an intermediate owner). In my current house the children and grandchildren of the builder told me. In both cases they just didn’t understand that water runs downhill. Some minor regrading took care of all of it in the first house, most of it in this one.
In this house I was told the front door couldn’t be opened from outside. It had an old mortise lock with a button to control the outside knob. Pushed the button and it opened just fine. Also given a key to the old back door. Didn’t even fit in that lock.
Not quite the same, but…
We bought our house in MA when it was 1 year old, and the builder was still building houses in the neighborhood. His brother lived across the street so we saw the builder on a regular basis. At one point my dad spoke to him about a tree in the front yard that was sickly looking and inquired if the builder (Old Man Jenks we all called him) could recommend someone to take it down. OMJ said he thought the tree would survive, but if it was still frail in a few years he’d take it down himself.
Cut to five years later and a crew shows up at our front door and asks my mother (who knew nothing about the conversation years earlier) if it was a good day to cut the tree down. Much hilarity ensued. OMJ was quite a character. My dad asked him once what he recommended for water leaking into our basement. Jenks said “My basements don’t leak” and sent a crew over to fix the problem, no charge. This was probably 8-10 years after the house was built.
I don’t know if it’s a requirement where my mom lives, but her parents and her sister all died in her house. Not at the same time - really - my mom didn’t off any of them. :eek: But her parents and her mentally handicapped sister came to live with her and Dad in the mid-90s.
My grandmother had a stroke in '95, and died there shortly thereafter. My grandfather died in his sleep of cancer a year later. My aunt died in 2012 of one of her many health problems - probably her heart. She just went to sleep and didn’t wake up.
So there have been at least 3 deaths in 2 of the 3 bedrooms. It happens. That’s life. Heck, even if my parents had been crazed killers, it’s not like they’d convey when the house sells! And face it, it’s entirely possible that someone died right where you are this moment some time in history.
Well, the disclosure rule does say only three years prior.
Just people deaths? What about pets? How about bugs? Could I just say “various ants and spiders” or do I have to list each individual bug with a date and cause of death?
If the point of a safe is to be secret, showing it as a feature to prospective buyers negates that, don’t you think? There are criminals who pose as buyers to case houses or steal prescription meds.