Do You Have to Disclose a Haunted House to Buyers?
With Halloween just around the corner, Timms Solicitor Michelle Rock discusses how much information you really have to share with potential buyers about your ‘haunted house’…
Do You Need to Tell a Buyer Your House Is Haunted?
When buying a property, the legal principle is ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘buyer beware’ therefore, it is for the buyers to carry out all inspections and surveys on the property and for their Solicitors to raise any relevant enquiries. Therefore, the onus is on the buyers and their Solicitors to gather all the information about the property. Does this therefore mean you can keep quiet and not tell the buyers about your haunted house?
If you are ever asked by the buyers or their Solicitor if you have ever seen or experienced any paranormal activity or whether there have been any deaths at the property then you would have to answer truthfully and honestly.
Tempting as it may be to only disclose positive information about the property there is a risk that if the negative information is found out at a later date, after the buyers have bought your property, that they may litigate against you for misrepresentation. Therefore, if you give the buyers a misleading answer and they went on to buy your house and then believe they saw a ghost, it is possible that they may have a case for misrepresentation against you. Although it may be difficult to prove it.
There was a case before the Courts where the seller did not disclose that a murder had occurred in the house and the buyers sued for misrepresentation. However, in this case the seller was not found liable for misrepresentation. This does not mean that other cases may be brought before the Courts and can be for any issue, not just mysterious activity!
A further case before the Courts related to flooding. The sellers sold a property and ticked within the Property Information Form that there had been no flooding at the property. The buyers subsequently bought the property which then flooded. After looking through the sellers’ Facebook pages they found numerous photos of the property that had flooded and the buyers won a successful misrepresentation case!
In conclusion, it is better to tell your potential buyers of all positive and negative information about your property and for them to make an informed decision than to end up in messy, time consuming and costly Court proceedings.
How Can Timms Help?
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this article or the sale/purchase of a property, please do not hesitate to contact Michelle at m.rock@timms-law.com or give me a call on 01530 564498.
October 2023