Would you buy a house if the owners had buried their pets in the garden?

[baddayattheoffice]

So, you've found a house you love, you've exchanged contracts and during a visit to measure the windows the owners drop it into the conversation that they had buried their deceased pets in the garden. Would this put you off buying the house, and if it put you off to the extent that you no longer wanted to buy it, (for example you wanted to dig out for an extension) what would you do?

Could you tell them you're planning an extension as they might want to move them. When we bought our house we didn't know there was a dog buried. We lifted the turf and rotivated the ground. A load of bones were chucked all over the place and it wasn't till we'd thrown a few away we realised it was a pet skeleton. Couple of years later there was a knock at the door and a little old lady stood there. Would we mind if she visited her dog who had been buried in our garden by her son (his house). We said of course but felt bloody awful that this woman was sobbing over a patch of earth where her dog wasn't!!!!

Theres a small grave-yard of pets in the side garden of My mums house ... Headstones included !

Facelikeapairoftits yes the hole needs to be substantial but we’ve always had a digger around. Also you have to put lime in and carefully chose a spot away from waterways. I’ve never dealt with the practicalities though, DH has sorted things out. I stay with them until the vet has PTS and then it’s too much.

Wouldn’t bother me in the least, I assume most houses probably have a pet or two in the garden?

I am really bemused by all the people saying 'years ago, everyone did this'.

Surely everyone still does this? Where else would you bury your dead pet?

Vets offer cremation services these days, so not everyone buries their pets at home any more. I certainly prefer not to, having had one of my pets disinterred by a persistent fox many years ago.

It wouldnt bother me, but I'd have no problem digging them up/building over them for my extension. You are buying a house and garden, not a house and cemetery. Weird they mentioned it!

My parent's house has a lovely little headstone for a dog from the previous owners (it's over 30 years old now). 2 of our family dogs are also buried at different places the garden - not with headstones though.

Wouldn't think to mention it/ask about it if selling or buying tbh.

It wouldn’t bother me as I won’t do digging for extension myself but I won’t promise to keep “the grave” or anything like this.

Oh, I also know of a bloke who buried his motorbike in his back garden. No idea why.

We have our cat buried in the back garden (she died 10 years ago yesterday, bless her). Of the rest of the deaths in the last decade, both dogs were PTS at the vet, so left there for cremation, and I took one of the ancient pet sheep into the vet for a peaceful end one September because she wouldn't have made it through winter and I wanted her to go quietly in the sunshine (they misjudged the dose and had to go in and get a second one, so my last memory of her is of her lying flat on her side in the trailer, snoring very loudly). She was too big for their cremation pick-up service, so I had to drive her body up to the SRUC lab myself, where they were very kind to a middle-aged woman trying desperately not to sob all over the lovely New Zealand post-mortem vet over the body of an old ewe being lifted onto a gurney. On-farm burials for livestock are mostly prohibited now, but I live in one of the few parts of the country which is remote enough for it still to be permitted, and I have three lambs which didn't make it last spring buried in the fields. They were so tiny though that they'll probably be mostly dissolved already.

Wouldn't bother me. Old chap next door to us scattered his dw ashes in the front garden, he then developed alzheimer's and forgot she was dead.

Wouldn't live in a house where a human died in though.

Answering the original post only, it wouldn't put me off, but I'd like to know where they were so I could avoid any distressing surprises.

We’ve buried rabbits, guinea pigs, cats and ferrets in our back garden over the years to the point I wonder if they’d think we did ritual sacrifice of animals a few hundred years in the future!

Haven’t put any bigger animals like dogs in yet though.

Some of the answers on this thread have had me crying with laughter! My grandfather had a little graveyard for all of his pets in his backgarden. Each one had a little headstone. When he died no, we didn't bury him there and we sold the house my mother took the gravestones with her and they're now adorning her present garden. On the other hand she has had all her deceased dogs cremated and keeps their ashes lying around in boxes. Apparently she wants me to put them all in with her when she goes

It wouldn't bother me. I don't know who bought my parents house when they sold it. There are numerous Guinea Pigs, Rabbits, hamsters and a dog and cat buried in that garden.

I agree with those who wonder why they even told you...unless they’re not really dog bones and they didn’t want you asking any awkward questions when you came across them.

It would depend on what they'd been buried in tbh. A cloth bag or just straight into the ground - fine. A girl I used to live with at uni insisted on burying her deceased hamster in a clear plastic Ferrero Rocher box because she didn't want the remains to be dug up and eaten by any cats or foxes. I imagine that would have been an extremely unpleasant thing to dig up months later.

When I moved house my last act was to go into the garden and say good bye to all the pets buried out there. If the new owners extend or whatever so be it.

Incidently unless you buy a new build and are the first owners chances are someone will have died there. I live in an old property and doesn’t fuss me at all if someone ended there days here. Has a lovely calm atmosphere so they must have been happy.

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Wouldn't bother me .

Doubt any would come back like Church did in Pet Sematary