To find out if anyone ever died in the house we just bought?

So having bought the house, is OP going to refuse to move in and put it back on the market?

More than likely I’m afraid

Yes, it's not death itself but the manner of death.

Unfortunately lots of PP being patronising, judgemental and not understanding where the OP is coming from

You've just bought it. What on earth will you do if you find out someone has died in it (which is highly likely if it's old). Put it up for sale immediately? You're being ridiculous and as another post said, very childish

What a ridiculous man.

If it’s any age at all it will have had people die in it. That was normal. It’s only recently that dying in hospital has become more common.

Death is a part of life. There are no ghosts.

It's not about the dying, it's the manner of death. So for people who died in their own home - probably the way the wanted to go.

People who died trying to escape a mine collapse on the ground of an estate still to be built? Yup,. those are gonna haunt.

I lived in a house where a similar scenario to the above happened. I couldn't go near the landing alone at night, and always felt watched from there. I later found out from a neighbour the reason why,

So trust yuor own intuition. No reason for a person dying in a house to discount it. And could be your way to a bargain.

Our house is old, 1900, definitely seen a few croak it. I actually did research on the previous occupants. Funny thing is though, is it the 1980s extension that gives me the creeps, not the old bit of the house!

• pissed

When we first moved into our bungalow our elderly neighbour gleefully told us that the previous occupant an older woman had died in the kitchen / lounge door way. We just smiled and said "Well, sorry to hear that but we live here now., it's not a problem"
Been happy here for nearly two years, must have oissed on neighbours chips as she ignores us now.

Link to the Guardian article if anyone's interested amp.theguardian.com/money/2022/nov/19/the-more-we-pulled-back-the-carpet-the-more-we-saw-what-i-learned-when-i-bought-a-house-with-a-dark-past

It's got some other stories as well from the agent who sold Dennis Nielsen's flat to a woman who found out she bought a house where babies had murdered in Victorian times.

And correction: it wasn't in the writer's house that the man committed the rapes and murders, he only started fires in the house multiple times (God know knows why).

Where would you like to draw the line? How about children who have been beaten or abused in the house, women who have been raped, or murders? If you're going to buy into this woo, why stop at simple death? There must be lots of reasons for haunting. What about Pipes? He was a kiddie fiddler and he haunted that house.

OP, please ignore the people telling you off for being "silly". I think I understand what you're saying, you would like to know if a unnatural death, let's say, happened in the house.

I read an article in the Guardian a while ago about a man who bought a flat where multiple killings had happened. IIRC it was in East London and the killer had fled to India (I think). It was an interesting read and maybe if people had read that they wouldn't be so judgmental.

When I came to live in the property I am now (a HA flat) we found out the previous tenants were evicted due to subletting. Original tenant sublet the flat to a couple and talking to neighbours we found out they were all from the same background, a place in world known for witchcraft and spiritualist "religions", let's say. In the first visit it was clear the tenants had been evicted in a hurry with masses of stuff left behind.

After it was cleaned and painted we came to live here and all I can say is that the first two years were absolute hell. We've had all sorts of problems going from being threatened by thugs that used to hang around the corner, a plague of cockroaches, and just bad luck overall. I was having panic attacks and crying every day till one day I said well that's enough. I spoke to the priest of my son's school at the time and explained the situation. He came and blessed the house in a very "specific way" and while things didn't get better straight away they surely got better over time, so much so the scumbag who harassed my husband was arrested, the dealers that used to hang around the corner dispersed, the house across the street which was a hub of dealers went very quiet.

I am ever moving from here I'm going to research the shit out of the new address. I'm fine with old people dying peacefully at home, that's the circle of life. Anything other than that it's a big no, not even if you give me a palace to live for free.

I don't think there is a register of where people died. So how are you going to find out?

Yes, please could you check this isn’t what’s happened?

How would the solicitor know if anyone has ever died in the house? I don't think anyone keeps a running total.

Can you not get that information from your solicitor?
I'm in NI and we were offered the information as standard. It's with all the legal bits.

Having experienced some woo things in the house I live in now and a previous home (previous home had been a hospital and was built in 1730 = lots of deaths) current home converted from a row of Victorian estate workers cottages = lots of deaths) I would say make peace with the new house. 'Ghosts' can't harm you.

Nothing is frightening if you face it head on. Wander around the new place and tell the house you're the new family and it's going to be a happy house. Then get on with life and enjoy your new home.

Could you burn some sage?

What exactly do you think that will achieve? Make the place smell herby? Seriously, think about it rationally.

FWIW I do believe in "ghosts", though I don't think they're what most people think they are (i.e. the spirit of a dead person returning).

There's a few replies here basically telling you not to be so silly but this 'apparition' clearly frightened a grown man.
Let's say ghosts exist, and let's say it's the ghost of a child...l'm pretty sure if you were 'nice' to said 'ghost' she's not going to cause you harm. Lots of ideas here how you might find out if a child died. I think the general 'rule' is whilst the two 'times' can cross over sometimes, 'ghosts' only interact if they can't 'settle'. A quick Google search will bring up 101 ways of laying a 'soul' to rest.
Don't invent problems where there aren't any.

You could search for your address in the British newspaper archives. But would it matter?

People die. Death is normal. If anything, it is good to know that our houses have sheltered all types of human experience (one reason why I actually wouldn't want to live in a newly-built house).
I think your reaction is odd (that's the polite way of putting it) and you need to find a way to toughen up about everything that life has to chuck at us.

Better not to know I would have thought, given that you've probably just spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on it!

Wasn't there a thread about this recently?

I did research on my street, and next door had 10 children, only 5 of which survived beyond age 2 or 3. I thought this was a grim, but hey ho, instead I focus on the times they had huddled round the fire, listening to their Dad play a banjo, or how excited they would have been hearing King George's speech on the radio. Or how proud they'd have been walking into a brand new house when it was first built 150 years ago. Sure, there's been deaths, but its the cycle of life, and there's also been joy as brides left this house on their way to get married, and heart bursting moments when new fathers sitting downstairs heard the cry of the first born upstairs as the midwife shouted down to them.

@Ginnyfromtheblock Dont worry about the bad stuff, there will have been so many more happy memories in your house than bad ones. Enjoy your new home and create some more memories within its walls.

Exactly where i am sitting now is where the old man that used to own the cottage died, he had been dead a while. He died sitting in his chair. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I occasionally say good morning to him and i put his favourite flowers in the room during the week of his death.

Could you burn some sage? Get an exorcist in? I do sympathise because I get the creeps in certain houses, despite not believing in ghosts. I doubt you’ll be able to find out whether anyone died in the property though. Unless it was very recent.