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No right to know of murder history in real estate purchases.

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posted on Jan, 9 2013 @ 09:32 PM
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Imagine this; you've been shopping for a home for your family and finally find the perfect place. After going through the home inspections and mountains of paperwork which seemingly took forever, you finally get to move into your new dream home. As the family is unloading the moving truck and getting ready to move into your new home, one of the neighbors comes up to welcome you to the neighborhood. The first thing out of his mouth; "So you're the guy who bought the MURDER HOUSE."






Home sellers can keep murders, suicides secret

Planning on buying a house this year?

If you're even slightly squeamish, get ready to do some extra detective work.

If the property was the site of bloody crime, the seller does not have to divulge that scrap of information.

In a decision handed up in Pennsylvania last week, a panel of Superior Court judges reaffirmed that the sordid reputation of a home - no matter how gruesome - does not count as "material defect" and does not have to be disclosed to the buyer.

"The fact that a murder once occurred in a house falls into that category of homebuyer concerns best left to caveat emptor" - let the buyer beware, the court wrote.

Philly.com

I can't even imagine the nightmare of moving into a new place only to find that a gruesome murder had occurred there. The law used to be that sellers had to divulge such information. With the stroke of a pen and a new judicial decision, sellers are now allowed to hide that information.

At the very least, it should be something that would affect the selling price of the home. At worst, it could be hiding the fact that a home may be haunted, possibly by malevolent spirits. Even if you don't believe in stuff like ghosts, the mind can play tricks on a person late at night and the knowledge of the gruesome events that transpired there could leave the new owners jumping at shadows. Imagine how this affects kids moving into a new home as well.

They say the history of murder and suicide isn't a "material defect" in the home, I wonder how they would decide if the new home-buyer had claimed the house was haunted. That would be a fun case to see played out in the courts.

They do say that potential home-buyers have one option to get around this decision;

The upshot to Milliken v. Jacono et al: If living within a former crime scene would keep you from a night's sleep, ask for a written warranty in the agreement of sale that states the home was never the site of a murder, suicide or other felony.


Something tells me this will be an increasingly demanded new clause in all home sales in Pa soon.

Would it bother you to find out a home you were considering buying had a gruesome history? Would it make a difference if the murders were new or decades or even centuries old?

Me, I know I would definitely have second thoughts if I found out something horrible happened in a home I was planning to buy.


edit on 1/9/13 by FortAnthem because:
___________ extra DIV



posted on Jan, 9 2013 @ 09:35 PM
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it aint the dead you should worry about



posted on Jan, 9 2013 @ 09:35 PM
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With the way people are these days, I am not surprised there is not actually a thriving market for murder houses. There are some weird people out there and a ton of them are loaded with cash.



posted on Jan, 9 2013 @ 09:52 PM
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There are always other ways of knowing locations... the famous ones are like another member here did

Well known murder houses

... but any event like that ought to have a record in the local paper or other places. Why wouldn't someone do a thorough background check on an address given the resources that can be done? I'd assume sellers are hiding things these days until an independent look said otherwise.



posted on Jan, 9 2013 @ 10:10 PM
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Originally posted by mcx1942
With the way people are these days, I am not surprised there is not actually a thriving market for murder houses. There are some weird people out there and a ton of them are loaded with cash.


exactly, market it for the crime and it would probably sell for a bundle to some nut job



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 02:24 AM
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reply to post by FortAnthem
 


Not everybody believes in ghosts, haunting, or curses. So why would they care if someone died in the house they've just bought? In fact, pretty much all of the land anyone lives on serves as the final resting place for someone. Before European settlement of America a massive plague swept through killing a good portion of the native population... all of our current land probably serves as their resting place. Yet very few people seem worried about that... I wonder why.

~ Wandering Scribe



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 05:42 AM
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I'm suggesting you should ask your Realtor about death disclosure laws in your state. This "death disclosure" controversey came about in the aftermath of the AIDS scare. In California, because of the AIDS scare and privacy issues, the law is "If a buyer asks if there has been a death on the property? The realtor only has to answer yes if it's been within the last three years".



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 06:34 AM
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When house shopping in NC a few years back, I jokingly asked the realtor if she had to disclose if the house was considered haunted.

She said yes. That it was even a question on the final exam for her license. How interesting is that?

Personally, I don't think I'd have a problem living in a murder house. But I'm weird.



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 10:19 AM
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Originally posted by missvicky
I'm suggesting you should ask your Realtor about death disclosure laws in your state. This "death disclosure" controversey came about in the aftermath of the AIDS scare. In California, because of the AIDS scare and privacy issues, the law is "If a buyer asks if there has been a death on the property? The realtor only has to answer yes if it's been within the last three years".


That actually makes sense. If there had been someone living in the home with a contagious disease, they should tell potential buyers about it. AIDS probably wouldn't be that bad because it doesn't survive long outside the body but there are other things people should be worried about like if the former owner was a world traveler who may have contracted some wierd diseases or if the former owner suffered from a MRSA infection.

Of course, some people may look at a murder house as having all of its bad luck used up so nothing else bad should happen there ever again.




posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 12:34 PM
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Here in Minnesota, if there was a murder in your house, it has to be disclosed. Suicide, natural deaths, ghosts... nope.


So, what types of things must a broker or seller disclose? Minnesota law is very clear about that the following that does NOT need to be disclosed:
  • Suicide, accidental death, natural death, or perceived paranormal activity
  • information regarding sex offenders, as long as the seller gives written notice that information about predatory offender registry and registered offenders may be obtained by contacting local law enforcement or the department of corrections
  • if the property was occupied by someone who is, or was suspected to be, infected with the HIV virus or AIDS.
  • If the property is located in a neighborhood containing an adult family home, community based residential facility or nursing home
Glaringly missing from this list is disclosure of murder. This is something that must be disclosed. (Source)



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 04:27 PM
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Personally, I'd want to know, "just in case".



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 06:48 PM
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I would definitely want to know! I visited a close relative in the US, she lived in a house where a young mother had been murdered by her estranged husband back in the late 1800's. Lots of eerie things occurred in that house..I was intrigued...one night, I loudly stated that I wanted to meet them before I went home to the UK. Well..boy..did I 'meet' them that night!!

My relative had no problem living with this poor spirit (and others), but, although I found it all very interesting, I would have been totally unable to reside permamently in that house, alone or with family (she lived alone).

It would be extremely unfair for a serious house history of that ilk not to be disclosed. Some people just do not have the coping mechanisms needed to cope with spirits of that nature lurking around them or their families.



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 07:19 PM
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You will get the vibe, if evil is within a house.
There are remnants of the dead everywhere.
Time is different for those on the other side.
But only be bothered if the vibe is bad.
Good spirits , will help you, and share your home peacefully.
There are spirits in almost every home that is not brand new.
You may be followed home even by a spirit.
And they may decide to stay.
We are blinded to their presence, because of conditioning.
People used to put things on their doors to keep the bad spirits away.
But they didn't care about the good ones coming, but that was a long time ago, before the age of reason.



posted on Jan, 10 2013 @ 08:51 PM
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Our real estate guy had to disclose that someone died in our place. The guy committed suicide and even scheduled the maid service so he would be found. It didnt bother me in the least.



posted on Jan, 13 2013 @ 04:33 PM
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The spirits of the living also leave strong energy in a home, apartment, or dorm room. Energy sensitives will pick up on this pretty fast, as will children. Mostly the first type of intuition you'll receive is during dreams; when the mind is still, that's when you get the clearest sense of what happened in a home. So the last occupants, or any occupant who lived there for a long time, leaves energy data in a physical location, too. They don't have to be dead for this to happen.

You can clear this stuff out and generally it's a good idea to do so, especially if you have kids. It's always best to make a fresh start, especially if the past occupants were prone to addictions or other problems; those can tend to sort of "seep into" a home even when new people are living there. Energy will tend to recreate itself if not consciously changed and cleared.

The most common thing I've found is "old lady house" where an old lady who lived in a house a long time, whether she's dead or still alive (living in a nursing home or whatever) won't let go of the house and can actually become a rather annoying interfering type of presence depending on whether she "approves" of the new occupants or not! You have every right to claim the space as yours and send these gals packing!


In one of our homes one of my cats alerted me to the presence of an old lady spirit whose family had owned the property a long time; she had been dead for some 15 years but never really LEFT; my cat came to me, her eyes all big, and I could hear her saying, "THE LADY IS HERE! THE LADY IS HERE!" I could tell my cat didn't like this woman's energy terribly much.

So I sat down to do some spiritual work and gently made contact with the lady. She wasn't a bad sort, although she was a bit neurotic, religious, and intense. We had a good chat and made our own arrangements (basically she just wanted to know that we would appreciate and look after the home) and she went about her business, never to return.

In the ghostbusting work I've done over the years I have to say the "old lady still in her house" problem is the primary one I've seen, over and over again. Too many women of a certain era tied their whole identity to issues like whether their house was spotless, whether things were running a certain way in the home, and so on --- becoming real domestic control freaks; but this was just because they HAD no control of other things in their lives, the domestic sphere was the only world in which they had influence, so their energies often became incredibly intense surrounding issues of house and home. This problem isn't as bad for women of more modern ages, who tend to also spend a good deal of time outside the home and whose self-esteem isn't so tied to, you know, whether all the cobwebs are banished from their house!
(Good Lord, if people judged me on that one, I'd never get any rest.)
edit on 13-1-2013 by LipstickMystic because: spelling



posted on Jan, 14 2013 @ 10:42 AM
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We were in the market a few years back. I asked the seller if there were any murders or deaths in the house. Often, they didn't like the question, but answered. If not, I'd move on. Some of the houses, I didn't even ask as the feeling was too negative anyway.



posted on Jan, 15 2013 @ 03:39 AM
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okay you're probably going to find this a bit nutty, but here goes anyway. Sometimes it's the house itself. Having worked with forclosures exclusively over the last four-five years, often the bank would agree to rehab the house. Some houses are so sad and neglected that as we get into rehabbing them, they won't want us to stop!
They keep showing us more problems. The families that lost them had been so stressed for so long that energy would linger as well. Haven't run across any with death associated with them that I knew of, but a few of them, especially the older ones, we would encounter anomolies. Some of them had rooms i wouldn't even enter.



posted on Jan, 18 2013 @ 02:04 PM
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reply to post by FortAnthem
 


You said, "They say the history of murder and suicide isn't a "material defect" in the home, I wonder how they would decide if the new home-buyer had claimed the house was haunted. That would be a fun case to see played out in the courts"

Ironically enough, there actually was a case in New York that I read about just a few months ago...Stambovsky v. Ackley, it was taken all the way to the NY Supreme Court and the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and essentially stated that caveat emptor does not apply to a haunted house.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia page detailing the case and the ruling:
en.wikipedia.org...



posted on Jan, 18 2013 @ 11:38 PM
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reply to post by LipstickMystic
 


Yes , but I pick up.you have some unresolved issues with old women?
A mother perhaps?
Haunted homes, God knows as nine year old child...put it this way , I didn't sleep until sunrise for a year.
Then you move , and you sleep , like a log.
Even though I knew someone had died recently in the house.
The other house was a priests house, and it was bad.
I don't know for sure What the history was... but that house was evil.
Like you say its real.
Check the vibe everyone.



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