Could you buy a house someone had died in tragically?

[Mirrorballparade]

Have the opportunity to buy a house with below market price. Likely to be at a good price for a four bed detached in our area but has a “bad” history if you like. it could do with renovation.

Last year, a young woman was killed in the house in a domestic incident and years before a young lad had committed suicide. My parents are local and knew the young lad and his family who owned the property but not the young woman who was renting.

Now, DP is keen to go for it as it’s unlikely that we would ever get a house the same size at a similar price and that you would struggle to find a house these days someone hadn’t died in but I am hesitant. We are also thinking of starting a family soon so can houses carry bad vibes? the house is also known locally as a bit of a spooks place so there’s that as well!

I wouldn’t be able to personally, no.

It wouldn’t bother me. Our house had a notorious murder on the first floor landing (about ten feet from where I’m sitting) and it’s just a lovely, rather battered Victorian house with good bones, that we’re gradually restoring.

I agree

Have bought a house where someone committed suicide. We were not told and it was only once moving in that a neighbour said how awful it was etc. TBH it didn’t worry me at all.

Can you demolish and rebuild?

I think I could get into the mindset where the past was the past, and unless you are going to demolish every property where something tragic happened then the house is available and it would be a chance to give the place a fresh start. But it’s a very personal thing.

Yes. I think awful things have probably happened in nearly all houses with a bit of history. People saying they wouldn't buy it may well be living in houses where others were abused and hurt. They're just blissfully ignorant.

I wouldn’t have a problem with it because I’m not one of the MN woo maniacs.

Just to say I rented a house for several years where someone had been murdered. I only found out after about a year when a neighbour told me. I'd never had any bad feeling about the house. In fact I was always relaxed and happy there. Many people told me it had a good vibe.

I think I would want to know, but it wouldn’t impact my decision re whether to buy. I wouldn’t want to be blindsided again at a party for all the neighbours that the previous owner fell down the stairs, hit her head, and died alone on Christmas Day 🤦‍♀️ But… I’d have bought it anyway.
that incident has never bothered us but me my best friend have both seen a man in the garden just standing with his arms folded behind his back watching us. Not scary… just watching.

I have links to both Dennis Nielson's addresses in London. My grandparents lived in Melrose Ave, where he killed most of his victims, and grew up less than a mile away....their house was one of the first places we were allowed to walk to independently, and our route would have passed his house at the time he was living there and committing his crimes.

We now live within 1.5 miles of the address in Cranley Gardens that he was arrested at.

I'm not one to believe in ghosts etc but even I'd be a bit cautious about living in either of these properties. Although it's 40 years ago now, I wouldn't be happy, though I'd blame it on 'it would be difficult to sell ' rather than a gut feeling against it.

I'm a mental health nurse by profession, and trained in the early 90s in an old Victorian asylum (before nursing was diploma/degree level at University). The hospital shut around the time I qualified and was turned into luxury housing. Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't have lived there as I was aware of both murders and suicides there...and as I said I don't believe in ghosts. It just gives me the ick.

The family father (who was a big gardener) was in the d day landings and I feel oddly proud of him even though it was obviously nothing to do with me, I like to think he’s pleased with my gardening and just keeping an eye on things.
not sure how I’d feel if the history was sinister, but I’d like to think I’d get over it.

Not that one, no.

I am not particular superstitious but I would worry about “things coming in threes” so no, not that house.

Cameron House?

I am quite local but feel the same, less about the deaths (though they were awful) but that the hotel seemingly cared so little for health and safety of guests

The house where my sister ended her life 3 years ago was snapped up very quickly and the family who live there now are very happy. Nobody thinks of it as the suicide house and its in a lovely area etc so I honestly wouldn't worry about it.

Well my dad died in their new build house and you'd never know. We'd lived in it for about 18 months before he died.

We now live in a house built in the 1700s and no doubt a whole host of people died in our house!

However, we also live in a village with a 'murder house' and no I wouldn't live there! Not because of the 'Woo' or really the reputation of the house (everyone in the village refers to it as the murder house) but because I know it needs so much work. It's absolutely trashed inside, then again maybe it is because of the reputation of the house..

It was horrible what happened there though.

I wouldn't buy it/live there if it was a murder/murders - mostly because I overthink things a lot and am also a very poor sleeper so it would keep me awake at night.

Otoh, if it was someone who'd taken their own life or died in the property through health issues or natural causes, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.

We've owned several fairly old houses - our current one is 400 years old - so understand that people have obviously died in them over the years. That doesn't bother me at all, but a violent death would.

The stingy side of me would say do it, grab a bargain, but I’m quite susceptible to a bit of woo and don’t think I could do it!

Id be lying there at night thinking about it or imagining I see spirits and what not

So interesting to read the different view points here

Went to look at an old farmhouse cottage part of the original estate a workers house. Looked chocolate box house from the outside. Went in and felt fear couldn't finish the viewing. Found out much later that it had a bad history and a worker had blown his brains out there.

Our house over 200 years old will have a lot of history, deaths but it was a happy house.

Friend lives on a new small development. Used to be the cottage hospital, before that the work house. Residents there some hear screaming, some see shadows gliding around.

They don't actually though. They have just convinced themselves they do. It's very juvenile.

In my last house the person who lived there before died (they were old so not a tragic accident)

We often heard footsteps on the celling - and couldn't find a reason. We lived there 10 years and were very happy to move away - the people after us lived there 7 and the person after them have done 3 years - I'm convinced there was an odd feeling (not the only person to 'feel it' )

I'd not knowingly buy a house like it again.

Generally it wouldn't bother me but there is one small row of houses near me that I wouldn't touch in a month of Sundays. A fire killed an adult and 6 kids in one, a teenage boy hanged himself in another, an elderly couple were killed in an accident coming out of their drive in a third. I wouldn't feel comfortable in any of those.

I grew up in an old farmhouse where a previous owner had committed suicide. Never once have I ever felt any sort of bad vibe in there. In fact the house is very much part of our family - could never sell it. It’s definitely not known as the suicide house either - I doubt people even remember!

I don’t really believe in these things but I think if you went and viewed it you would feel something either way. And by that I mean you would just either like it or not.

The previous occupant of our house died in our/his living room. I didn't know this when we bought it, it was a neighbour who told me. He died of old age and peacefully apparently. That didn't stop me thinking about him sat in his arm chair, with remote control in his hand just being dead. I had to give my head a wobble. I do overthink things though and I'm quite anxious. I know it sounds daft, and I've never felt uncomfortable in my own home.

For that reason, I don't think I would knowingly buy a house where a murder, or someone who had completed suicide, had taken place. I wouldn't think negatively about someone who did though, and I'm the stupid one I suppose.