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AIBU?

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Original poster

Death in property

137 replies

Bubbles121 · 19/09/2018 21:33

Hi all! I'm posting here for traffic, I don't really have an AIBU...

How do you know if someone died in your house when you're moving? Is there a website or something like in America which tells you - or does the agent or vendor have to disclose it to you?

OP posts:
Mummyrowland · 19/09/2018 23:54

When we bought our house the fact the vendors grandad committed suicide in the garage was never mentioned!

It would t have stopped us buying the house but would have stopped the shock when our kitchen fitter told us! It was actually recorded in paperwork we got sent aswell after the purchase.

The house has history as over 200 years old!

Original poster
Bubbles121 · 19/09/2018 23:55

@Buteo it's not detached no - although I did spend some time worried that it was previously detached but after his note about bulldozing the house they'd split it into two or something. Fortunately it's clearly built around the 1930s otherwise I'd probably convince myself that's what's happened.

OP posts:
Original poster
Bubbles121 · 20/09/2018 00:00

Oh @HesterMacaulay it's too late for that - we are doing searches, in a chain, have a mortgage agreement committed to the house now lol.
I really wish I'd never googled it! We do love the house and are really keen on it, I think I just need to put this to bed in my mind. I'm not thinking of pulling out or anything like that, mostly because I'm 99.9% sure it's not ours and I'm just getting all tense over nothing. One part of me wants to keep digging and the other part of me is telling my brain to drop it all cos who knows what else I'll find out...

OP posts:
HesterMacaulay · 20/09/2018 00:03

Then ultimately my advice remains the same. Sounds like its the right house for you. The article definitely says "detached house". End of!
Step away from the search engines ....
I hope it all goes smoothly!

Original poster
Bubbles121 · 20/09/2018 00:08

@HesterMacaulay hopefully in three months time I will have completely forgotten all of this and I'll be drinking champers and celebrating in my new living room

OP posts:
Rhiannon13 · 20/09/2018 00:10

The house I grew up in had seen two murders, one hanging (in the garden) and a fatal accident (when the owner fell down the stairs). None of this was disclosed when my parents bought the house but the neighbours soon told us all about it (with added info from a 'haunted houses' book in the library).

We got over the shock, made the house our own for fifteen years, and still wish we hadn't sold it. Nothing bad happened while we were living there.

A house is just a house. If you like it, buy it and if it gives you a bad feeling, keep looking.

HesterMacaulay · 20/09/2018 00:10

Wine Flowers

Buteo · 20/09/2018 00:13

You might be able to do a phone book search on Ancestry.com?

Fatted · 20/09/2018 00:15

I'd be more worried about buying a new build. Have you never seen Poltergeist?!

LongSummerDays · 20/09/2018 00:16

My late FIL was found dead on his settee after having a brain haemorrhage. His dd had the settee cleaned up and took it home with her for her lounge. Confused

Buteo · 20/09/2018 00:19

Yes you can, there is a matching record for 1972. That should give you the address? Smile

Original poster
Bubbles121 · 20/09/2018 00:24

@Buteo what is a phone book search?

OP posts:
Buteo · 20/09/2018 00:37

Sorry, it’s on ancestry.co.uk (not .com).

search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1025

They have the BT Phone books archived, so you can search with the correct three initials and surname, town, county and country, and the year as 1972. It should come up as the first record.

Original poster
Bubbles121 · 20/09/2018 00:41

Oh @Buteo you are a genius! I didn't quite get it through the phone book but I can confirm that murder house is some distance away from my house! I shall be sleeping easy tonight - thank you!!

OP posts:
Nancydrawn · 20/09/2018 00:42

If it's likely not to be your house, I think you don't have to dig.

However, burn a saint's candle/have a holy water blessing/buy sage on Amazon and smudge your house/burn incense/sprinkle salt/whatever makes you feel like you've cleansed spirits. It will make you feel better and it couldn't hurt.

Buteo · 20/09/2018 00:42

Flowers and a celebratory Gin

Gersemi · 20/09/2018 00:44

no census sadly - they are only public record for 1911 and earlier from what I can see and this was only a few decades ago.

Are you sure? There have been ten censuses since 1911.

TeeniefaeTroon · 20/09/2018 00:48

@jent85 and @InstagramPork where are you based? I'm a Scottish estate agent and I've never had to check whether someone has died in a property before I sell it.

Buteo · 20/09/2018 00:48

There’s a 100 year rule for the release of census data - the 1921 census won’t be released until 2022.

HesterMacaulay · 20/09/2018 00:52

What a satisfactory conclusion!
(Are you a private eye Buteo?)

Fabellini · 20/09/2018 00:55

Dp has a work contact that he regularly drops stuff off to - the first time I was with him I realised the house is where a friends parents died, the mum from cancer, and the dad from suicide about a week after her death.
Dp knew of them, but didn’t know where they’d lived, so he hadn’t realised until I said. He told me that his colleague has mentioned that the house was a bargain, but dp doesn’t think he knows what happened - we have no intention of telling them and they seem to be very settled and have just had a baby, so hopefully it is a happy family home once again.
I suppose one of the neighbours might mention it though Sad

RedneckStumpy · 20/09/2018 01:02

I think it’s safe to assume that if the house is over 50 years old then someone croaked in it, probably someone was born there too

I don’t think it matters, it’s the circle of life

ButchyRestingFace · 20/09/2018 01:32

There's a house we are keen to buy but found local newspaper reports dating back to the sixties about a man who murdered his family with an axe on that road.

Bloody hell OP, you have been er... thorough. It wouldn't even occur to me to googling for the house's history going back decades. All I'd be looking to make sure is that there weren't currently noisy, delinquent neighbours with a penchant for getting themselves arrested. Grin

I found one of my parents dead in their home last year (sudden death). It was a rental, so no selling involved. I'm sure one of the blabber mouth neighbours will waste no time in telling the new occupants how the previous tenant met their end though. Hmm.

EmilyRosiEl · 20/09/2018 01:54

A murder is quite different from a death! Someone died in my house, whilst I was here but she was 90 and died naturally and people will have died in lots of houses BUT I agree with you that I wouldn't live in a house where someone murdered their family!

SecretWitch · 20/09/2018 01:59

Our house is a Victorian heap, complete with a mourning room (as discussed on a different thread) I know people have died and been laid out in my home. It has a very warm and peaceful feel to it.

I don’t know if I would feel different if presented with facts of violent death taking place here. I’ve never looked that hard tbh.

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