When selling a house in the US, the owner is required by law to disclose certain types of information about it, including the property taxes on it, problems with mold or dry rot. In the case of haunted houses, the seller may have to tell the owner about the ghost. Though laws vary by region, many places have statutes requiring owners to tell potential buyers about any deaths that have occurred in the house or on the property within a certain time period, or if the buyer asks about any deaths. If the owner doesn't disclose this information to the potential buyer, he or she may be open to a lawsuit.
More about haunted houses:
- At least one US seller has been successfully sued (Stambovsky v. Ackley) for not disclosing the fact that her house was haunted. Helen Ackley sold her house to Jeffrey Stambovsky without telling him that it was haunted, despite having publicized the fact earlier by giving interviews in newspapers about the house and having it included in a paranormal walking tour. Stambovsky sued for fraudulent misrepresentation and was able to break the contract and get his down payment back.
- Possible reasons why people might think a house is haunted include creaking floorboards, drafts, carbon monoxide leaks, and a psychological phenomenon called confirmation bias, in which people see ghosts because they expect them to be there.
- Houses where murders or suicides have occurred generally take longer to sell than other and sell for a lower price.