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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect Estate Agent to disclose history of house we are buying?

139 replies

deltacogal · 10/06/2016 17:43

Found the house of our dreams and had the offer accepted but after a bit of googling we found out via online news articles that the husband committed suicide in the house last year.

AIBU to think that this is the sort of info it would have been nice to know before putting in the offer? I'm a bit woo woo about this stuff as are my kids.

Was under the impression this kind of stuff would have been disclosed?

OP posts:
Registeringisapain · 10/06/2016 19:16

...Just wondered if there was any legal obligation as I think in other countries there is if it's been a crime or suicide...

It would be really nice of one day suicide was not ranked alongside crime, brothels, mass murder etc.

TheCraicDealer · 10/06/2016 19:20

I doubt he killed himself because he didn't like living in the house anymore, so I don't see how it's really relevant.

The worst things usually happen behind closed doors, each of us could be living somewhere where shitty things have happened and be none the wiser about it.

StarlingMurmuration · 10/06/2016 19:25

My uncle's next door neighbour hanged himself in his house after his wife left him. It's not a semi in the north west, is it?

To be honest, I wouldn't expect the estate agent to tell me, no. They are acting for the vendor, not for you. I probably wouldn't buy the house, if I found out. I was brought up in a Victorian terrace so probably people had died in the house at some point in its history, but I wouldn't like to know the previous owner had actually killed himself there.

clarrrp · 10/06/2016 19:33

Was under the impression this kind of stuff would have been disclosed?

No.

Fact is, most houses over a certain age will have seen at least one, if not many deaths - peaceful and violent. That has no impact on the house itself.

The last owner of our house died in what is our bedroom. The person who lives next door to me the previous occupant to him fell down the stairs and broke their neck.

We only know because of other neighbours and things that the families said during the viewing.

It makes no difference.

Buckinbronco · 10/06/2016 19:37

An estate agent? Tell you something that will put you off buying the house at maximum price?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Buckinbronco · 10/06/2016 19:43

Tbf though, I don't know why people use the "someone has died in every house" argument.

There is a big difference between the house a 65 year old had a sudden heart attack in in 1980, or the house granny returned to to die at home in in 1950, or the house Mrs smith succumbed to consumption in in 1919, to the one someone hung themselves off the bannister in in October 2015 or beat a rent boy to death in in June. BIG DIFFERENCE

RubbishMantra · 10/06/2016 19:44

Registering, my DH committed suicide last year. It's really shit that it can be lumped in with murder/other crimes. He wouldn't even kill a spider...

God, that visit from the police, your blood runs cold and you just know.

Anyhow, to shuffle back on topic - OP, I'm not sure if I could live in a house where I knew a murder had taken place. Entirely different to those who commit suicide, who are usually gentle souls, and feel their existence is making those around them suffer.

ForalltheSaints · 10/06/2016 19:47

If something had happened or someone lived there that might mean the risk of an unwanted visitor or a police inquiry then it seems relevant to know. For example, if you were buying a house where a famous singer had lived.

I would be more interested to know if anyone employed by the estate agent had some part of their past I should be aware of, for example if they had ever committed a crime or were deemed unsuitable to work with children.

Charley50 · 10/06/2016 19:54

RubbishMantra Flowers

RubbishMantra · 10/06/2016 19:54

Bucking - comparing a suicide to beating a rent boy to death - I cannot see the comparison. DH hung himself less than a year ago. He didn't beat any rent boys (or even raise a hand to anyone).

Why don't you Buck Off.

gardeningsarah · 10/06/2016 19:54

We rented a house where the previous owner had committed suicide (in the garage). Estate agent told us in advance but literally just before we were due to see it, you could tell he was finding difficult to tell us. I couldn't go in the garage when viewing property but once we moved in I had no choice as all our belongings were stored in there.
Property has since been sold.

Buckinbronco · 10/06/2016 19:56

Rubbish I'm not comparing them - you've completely misread/ misunderstood

pigsDOfly · 10/06/2016 19:56

When I sold my last house, the buyers came up with a whole load of questions just before we were about to exchange among which was 'has a murder ever been committed in the property?'

Asprilla11 · 10/06/2016 19:58

As others have said, Estate Agents work for the seller, not the buyer.

Most deaths happen in hospital or the home, I would imagine there are thousands of homes that have had a suicide in, including my Dad in my previous home.

Not sure if you have already been asked but do you believe in ghosts or the 'afterlife', is this what is troubling you?

Registeringisapain · 10/06/2016 20:06

Bucking, you're really didn't make it clear in your post which side you feel suicide falls into - nice cosy benign could happen to anyone death vs rent boy murdering.

Maybe re read your post with fresh eyes and think how it might come over to someone to whom suicide is personal rather than abstract.

I'm so saddened by the failure to see suicide as a death resulting from serious illness. It's immensely distressing.

RubbishMantra · 10/06/2016 20:08

Well to quote you Bucking; "to the one someone hung themselves off the bannister in in October 2015 or beat a rent boy to death in in June".

Certainly sounds to me as if lumping murderers and suicide victims as one and the same.

Newes · 10/06/2016 20:11

No, she was comparing different deaths and different eras in a single post, not lumping them all together.

expatinscotland · 10/06/2016 20:15

It wouldn't bother me, as it wouldn't bother many of us, but I think it's a bit unfair to scold people it would bother.

Buckinbronco · 10/06/2016 20:22

No, you're wrong rubbish. Please don't put words into my mouth when I typed nothing of the sort. You have misunderstood.

Buckinbronco · 10/06/2016 20:24

Register you are wrong to. My post compared historical to recent, nothing more

Buckinbronco · 10/06/2016 20:26

And in actual fact I was thinking of Denis neilson- the house in which he murdered rent boys has been up for sale a number of times with no indication in the write up of its history

jammyraspberry · 10/06/2016 20:30

Suicide isn't the same as a crime. If someone died from heart disease would you be bothered? Most people who commit suicide have some sort of depression, a mental disease. If someone died of heart disease or alcoholism they were killing themselves slowly. There is really no difference - mental or physical. Death is something we all have to face.

OhTheRoses · 10/06/2016 20:31

If there's any obligation it is through your solicitor's enquiries to the vendor via their solicitor. Nothing to do with the agent at all.

Olddear · 10/06/2016 20:35

Why would they tell you someone had committed suicide in the house? You can of course mention it if you ever sell it.

EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard · 10/06/2016 20:37

I'm in the camp of you make your own history, so when you move into a property the important things are if it's been well maintained, not about the lives of previous occupants.

OP when you turn the key in the front door and move in, it's your home. Enjoy it Flowers

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