One of the guys I work with is preparing to buy a home, so he has been researching buyer’s rights, etc., and he was intrigued when he read the disclosure law and came across the rules about “psychologically impacted” properties.

Seems in Massachusetts the seller’s real estate agent is under no obligation to tell prospective buyers if the house is believed to be haunted, or if the property was the site of a violent crime such as murder. State consumer protection law basically says that information isn’t germane to a property’s condition. The only disclosure that’s absolutely mandated under the law is whether the property contains lead paint or not, according to Mike McDonagh, an attorney at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

(To read the "psychologically impacted" property rule click here or for more information visit the state trial court's website.)

“But it’s very important to remember that if the buyer makes the inquiry, the broker and the seller must answer the question honestly,” McDonagh said. “They can’t make misrepresentations about the property.”

 

So if you have suspicions a property may be the site of “an alleged parapsychological or supernatural phenomenon” or a felony, suicide, or homicide, you can always ask. The real estate agent faces possible penalties if he or she offers misleading information.

This rule makes me wonder about the people in California who own the house where “Clark Rockefeller,” or Christian Gerhartsreiter, once lived. After he was found this summer with the daughter he was accused of kidnapping in Boston, his real identity was uncovered and authorities learned that his former landlords in California had disappeared in 1985. Authorities wound up back at that property with cadaver dogs looking for clues to the unsolved disappearance.

I'm not sure if the property was sold after the young couple disappeared, but if it was I wonder if the current owners knew about the disappearance and if they ever thought investigators might someday show up to search the property?

Would you consider buying a house where a crime had occurred? What about a home suspected of being haunted? Would you bother to ask if a house was haunted?