To ask if a house is haunted before I buy it

[pineapple7peach]

As the title says. Irrational childhood fear which I never grew out of. I don't know if I even believe in the paranormal but my worst nightmare is buying a house I'm too frightened to live in.

Would I be an embarrassment if I asked the estate agent/seller this question?

why would you care?

If someone asked me and I had spooky vibes I'd still say "not haunted" even if it was 😂 I want the house sold!!

This is good and kind and sensible advice and you should probably heed it.

That said, do you mind terribly OP if I continue to be glib? Because I think being a haunted house estate agent might actually be my calling.

Potentially setting yourself up for a lawsuit if the new owner hears bump in the night.

As a former estate agent, this sort of question would be VERY unusual and would invite raised eyebrows. I don't know personally what I think about ghosts and haunting (although I enjoyed the series very much!) but I think you need to keep it to yourself, see if you can get over irrational fears and go and see how the house feels at a viewing.

I'd hate to buy a house and learn it had a grizzly past. Not out of a fear of ghosts but it would just creep me out and I'd rather not live in a house where someone had had their head caved in in my bedroom. So I'd always google an address to see if anything came up.

My perfectly sensible intelligent neighbours were telling us about their last house, where pictures kept falling off walls and condiments falling out of cupboards and off shelves. (There was more spooky stuff but those are the two I remember.) One of them had been an estate agent, and iirc she said you’re supposed to declare any paranormal activity when selling a house (but they didn’t declare it themselves and actually had a phone call from the buyers about weirdness going on).

As I say, these were normal, sensible, no-nonsense professional people, not hippies or loonies. It made it so much more believable than if it had come from some of my woo-ier friends.

I absolutely think there's a market for it! There are plenty of people who would love to live in a haunted house, but definitely not me 😄new career path maybe?

I think you sound quite similar to me. I asked this once whilst looking at a private rental, and the landlady told me she thought it was haunted as she used to live there and had a few experiences! It was a Tudor property.

However, I had an overwhelmingly positive feeling from the atmosphere of the place, so we went ahead with it anyway

You might be onto something there! Am going to see if such a job exists. And if not I'm going to start an agency.

Name suggestions welcome.

RightWOOOve?

I also read somewhere that they're supposed to declare anything that could be a nuisance for the buyer, including paranormal activity. But I don't want to embarrass myself by asking these sorts of questions!

If you asked me that question you would inevitably get the answer "There are no such things as ghosts". Only you can decide whether that is what you want to hear.

I don't believe in ghosts however my friends who do believe that the ghosts haunt people not places so even IF there is a ghost they could follow the current owners rather than stay to haunt you@pineapple7peach

My problem with you as a buyer would be that if I said 'no' you might at some point after purchase decide the house is haunted and try to sue me or something (not sure if this is a thing you can do over hauntedness!!) but it would put me off you. So personally I wouldn't ask - but if it is very important to you then do what ever you find makes you feel at ease, but be prepared that it may put a vendor off .

My house is 400-odd years old, so loads of people have probably died here over the centuries, before hospitals/the NHS became widely available. Definitely never sensed any of them hanging around though, and like to think I’m “sensitive” enough to notice if they were.

😂

With a Tudor property you'd be a bit put out to hear there weren't any ghosts associated with the property. Just a nice little headless horseman or floaty noble woman.

OP, this is what to do.

Get a few minutes in the house alone - owners can watch through windows or doorways but you need to be alone. Wedge a door open for hasty exit if needed.

Speak to the house. Tell the house and the spirits of the house who you are, what you intend to do there. Tell them this is their moment to object, and if they don't, you don't expect any disturbance from them in the future.

If you are a praying person, pray (because if that annoys them, you need to know).

I have done this several times. One of my houses did offer some disturbances years after we moved in, but nothing I couldn't deal with. Though I did have to move the television into the back yard. Another story.

I'm glad the people who bought my previous house didn't ask me. Though there was nothing really tangible to report.

If you want to ask, I don’t see why you shouldn’t. People ask me if my house is haunted pretty regularly. They pose it as a joke. They aren’t joking though.

Tell us about the intangible stuff then, @Catspyjamas17 !

Another story. I'm intrigued @StopStartStop

🤣

Ask the solicitor to do a property search, in the dead of night on the next full moon!

I want to hear ALL the stories and ALL the “intangible” stuff.