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We sold a house in California earlier this year. As with all sales, we completed a Disclosure Form. However, for the first time it included one question. "Is your house haunted?"
It's behind us so I really don't care about it, but I'm curious. What kind of garbage is this? By asking the question, they're assuming that the seller believes in ghosts. However, what if a seller doesn't believe in ghosts or its a religious issue where answering such a thing would be a violation of their religious convictions? How would someone answer that question, or could they just line it out as ridiculous and unworthy of any attention?
I went ahead and answered it by checking the, "No" box. Personally, I thought it was plain old stupid, but I thought I'd ask the professionals what they thought of such a disclosure question.
I can also guess why it's there. Some buyer bought a house and then claimed that it was haunted, whether their claim was honest or dishonest. After pursuing the matter they must have won a court case and were paid off by the sellers or the real estate agent. Otherwise, why would such a thing even be there?
So, what do you guys think and what would you do if your seller refused to answer that question, either based on their lack of belief in ghosts or by a religious conviction that disallowed belief in such things? I can't see the seller being forced to answer it or a real estate company being able to refuse to take a listing because the sellers reasonably exercised their religious convictions. It kinda' sounds like a Catch-22 for the real estate company.
We sold a house in California earlier this year. As with all sales, we completed a Disclosure Form. However, for the first time it included one question. "Is your house haunted?"
It's behind us so I really don't care about it, but I'm curious. What kind of garbage is this? By asking the question, they're assuming that the seller believes in ghosts. However, what if a seller doesn't believe in ghosts or its a religious issue where answering such a thing would be a violation of their religious convictions? How would someone answer that question, or could they just line it out as ridiculous and unworthy of any attention?
I went ahead and answered it by checking the, "No" box. Personally, I thought it was plain old stupid, but I thought I'd ask the professionals what they thought of such a disclosure question.
I can also guess why it's there. Some buyer bought a house and then claimed that it was haunted, whether their claim was honest or dishonest. After pursuing the matter they must have won a court case and were paid off by the sellers or the real estate agent. Otherwise, why would such a thing even be there?
So, what do you guys think and what would you do if your seller refused to answer that question, either based on their lack of belief in ghosts or by a religious conviction that disallowed belief in such things? I can't see the seller being forced to answer it or a real estate company being able to refuse to take a listing because the sellers reasonably exercised their religious convictions. It kinda' sounds like a Catch-22 for the real estate company.
How is it different from a mold house or a meth house? If a house is forever haunted by a patch of mold under a sink or a rumored meth lab in a back bathroom why should ghosts not be a reasonable deficiency?
While consistency in dealing with the absurd is not required there is no rule against it.
I wonder if that's a new law? An old boyfriend of mine said when his parents sold their house in CA, they didn't have to disclose that is was haunted even though they felt it was. They were told, had someone been murdered there, then they would have to disclose that. Would love to hear from a CA agent on this one.
Yeah, we've bought and sold well more than once. It must be something new. The 2nd to our last sale was a another SFH we had in town. It was sold about 2 years prior to the latest sale I wrote about. On that one no ghost questions were asked on the disclosure.
We sold a house in California earlier this year. As with all sales, we completed a Disclosure Form. However, for the first time it included one question. "Is your house haunted?"
It's behind us so I really don't care about it, but I'm curious. What kind of garbage is this? By asking the question, they're assuming that the seller believes in ghosts. However, what if a seller doesn't believe in ghosts or its a religious issue where answering such a thing would be a violation of their religious convictions? How would someone answer that question, or could they just line it out as ridiculous and unworthy of any attention?
I went ahead and answered it by checking the, "No" box. Personally, I thought it was plain old stupid, but I thought I'd ask the professionals what they thought of such a disclosure question.
I can also guess why it's there. Some buyer bought a house and then claimed that it was haunted, whether their claim was honest or dishonest. After pursuing the matter they must have won a court case and were paid off by the sellers or the real estate agent. Otherwise, why would such a thing even be there?
So, what do you guys think and what would you do if your seller refused to answer that question, either based on their lack of belief in ghosts or by a religious conviction that disallowed belief in such things? I can't see the seller being forced to answer it or a real estate company being able to refuse to take a listing because the sellers reasonably exercised their religious convictions. It kinda' sounds like a Catch-22 for the real estate company.
I'm with you, I think the question is garbage. It is ludicrous to assume everyone believes in ghosts.
This post is somewhat ironic to me...I was taking my daughters out to eat earlier this evening. Not knowing that my girls had already gone out to the car to wait for me, I got up from the computer to go put on my shoes. I heard one of my girls fiddling around upstairs, so I left the mudroom and went to the dining room area to call upstairs to tell my daughter to hurry up. When I got to the stairs I realized I was the only one in the house...upstairs was totally dark and none of my kids would stay alone in pitch blackness.
My question is...do I have to share that story when I get ready to leave my house? LOL!!
if a Seller doesn't believe in ghosts or tooth fairies, then it's an easy question to answer honestly...'No'
A Seller's Sales Disclosure Statement is based on what the Seller knows at the time the statement is completed and signed. Now after a Seller fills out the Disclosure Statement and a ghost appears, does the Seller have to supplement the Statement by checking the box 'Yes'?
We sold a house in California earlier this year. As with all sales, we completed a Disclosure Form. However, for the first time it included one question. "Is your house haunted?"
It's behind us so I really don't care about it, but I'm curious. What kind of garbage is this? By asking the question, they're assuming that the seller believes in ghosts. However, what if a seller doesn't believe in ghosts or its a religious issue where answering such a thing would be a violation of their religious convictions? How would someone answer that question, or could they just line it out as ridiculous and unworthy of any attention?
I went ahead and answered it by checking the, "No" box. Personally, I thought it was plain old stupid, but I thought I'd ask the professionals what they thought of such a disclosure question.
I can also guess why it's there. Some buyer bought a house and then claimed that it was haunted, whether their claim was honest or dishonest. After pursuing the matter they must have won a court case and were paid off by the sellers or the real estate agent. Otherwise, why would such a thing even be there?
So, what do you guys think and what would you do if your seller refused to answer that question, either based on their lack of belief in ghosts or by a religious conviction that disallowed belief in such things? I can't see the seller being forced to answer it or a real estate company being able to refuse to take a listing because the sellers reasonably exercised their religious convictions. It kinda' sounds like a Catch-22 for the real estate company.
You've got to be kidding me is the first comment that comes to mind on this one and I can tell you it would probably have been exactly what my dh would have written right next to the question. Is this what we've come to, disclosing ghosts
the farm house in the movie 'In Cold Blood' comes to mind.
You mean Capote's move? Murder? Anything exciting there to know?
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