Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

It’s another one of those questions I get a lot. Often, I hear the same questions repeatedly from people, to the point where I have to write a column to clear things up. We can add this one to the list: “I’m selling my house.

Don’t I have to legally tell people it’s haunted?” Or, the same from the other side: “I just bought a house, and it’s haunted! Who can I sue?”

Short answer: Don’t worry about it. But I have to fill a seven-hundred-word column here, so I’m obviously going to have to go into more detail.

Now, I should start by saying that I’m not a lawyer, and not qualified to give legal advice. Also, the law can change depending on what state you’re in. But I do understand haunted houses. So here’s the deal.

Most people are under the impression that they have to disclose it if their house is haunted. For the most part, this isn’t exactly the case, but people don’t understand that. What they actually have to do is to inform the buyer if they are trying to sell a stigmatized property.

What we’re talking about, here, is the 1991 case Stambovsky v. Ackley.

Without going too deeply into the legal weeds here, this was a case in 1991 when a man was trying to buy a house. The realtor and the seller hadn’t informed him that the house had been in newspapers and magazines because it was thought to be haunted. Upon finding out that the general public knew it was haunted from the articles, he went to court, and was allowed to back out of the sale.

Note that it’s not, entirely, because of the ghost itself. No, that’s almost irrelevant to the decision. The ruling is not because the house was haunted, but because the house was publicized as being haunted, which is a somewhat different consideration.

A property that has been publicized, for any one of several reasons, is called a stigmatized property, and that’s what has to be disclosed to the buyer.

On a practical level, it doesn’t really matter if you believe your house is haunted. What matters is if tons and tons of other people are aware of this and likely to take an interest. In other words, the ghost doesn’t matter quite as much as idiot wannabe ghost hunters who trespass on your property all night.

Think about it: A few footsteps in the hallway is no big deal. What is a big deal is some yokel who read about your property and decides to try breaking in through a window at two AM with a flashlight and an EMF detector. I think we can all agree that’s a considerable problem. (That’s the difference between a good paranormal investigator and someone who’s seen too much TV—The good ones don’t trespass.)

The law also applies to non-haunted houses, under certain circumstances. Popular culture, for instance. Someone who moves into a house that’s been on TV might be hassled by fans constantly stopping by. For instance, the people who own the house on Breaking Bad have had to erect a huge fence to prevent fans from throwing pizzas on their roof. Don’t ask me, I never watched the show. But apparently that’s a thing.

The common thread isn’t that the house was haunted, but that the house was well-known to be something out of the ordinary. A house that’s been on TV, been in newspapers and magazines, has a very real risk of people showing up and causing a problem for new owners. They have to know what they’re getting into, and that’s the core of it.

Admittedly, I’m the guy who publicizes haunted houses in Clinton County. So if I’ve caused a headache for some of our local realtors, well….Sorry about that.