Buying a house you think someone might have died in? Yes or no?

[Aaaghbuying]

Saw a lovely house that's just come on. House here go pretty much within a day - think we saw it first.

It clearly belonged to an old person. And was told it's a probate sale.

What I hadn't expected was that the house still had the hospital bed with all the wipes etc by it. All the personal possessions etc. Looks like nothing has been moved or tidied AT ALL since the owner passed away. Which is a bit creepy.

I asked the estate agent if he knew if anyone had died there and he wisely said he hadn't asked as it's an uncomfortable question to ask, which is true.

Genuinely not sure what to do. It will go very soon whatever and ticks all our boxes in terms of size, location and price.

But I'm not sure if I could buy a house someone could have died in? Is that over-sensitive? It's a Victorian property so someone may well have passed away there in the last 140 years.

Views please. Have you done this and regretted it? Or done this and not regretted it? Or couldn't do it?

Thanks.

As a PP said, the older the property the more likely someone has died.

Having said that I moved into a new build about 18 years ago, there are 7 bungalows, 4 have had deaths in them.

Grandpa died at home just before I was 3 in the bedroom between mine and my parents.

After I was married and we'd left the area and we stayed the night it was in the 'middle' bedroom, same bed, same mattress etc.

I knew but never really thought about it, just remembering going in at about 6am for a snuggle. Poor sod he was 81, had prostate cancer, until about 3 months before he died was a locum pharmacist 6 days a week and had to amuse me all day Sunday.

I can still see the top of his head peeping out from under the eider down with its bald spot, and the feeling of total security and unconditional love even at 6am.

Part of the cycle of life, really.

The son of a previous owner of our house hung himself in the coach house in the late 1980s. His name is still scratched onto the beam which he hung himself from. I was fine with this until I found several lengths of rope with hangman’s knots tied into them under the floorboards upstairs.

It was well reported locally and many locals are convinced the building is haunted or cursed. If they knew about the scratched name and the rope they would go haywire.

My husband died in our house 10 years ago...new partner now moved in. Hope it won't affect the sale...mind you I'm sure he still haunts me by hiding things I find later 😂

I bet people have died in my house before. I know that people have been born here so that evens it out!

I'd only be nervous if it was some kind of violent or traumatic event I think.

originallillibet that’s sad. And traumatic.

Yep. If I'm honest I'd struggle with making a home where there'd been a suicide. Not because of the death itself but of the clear knowledge of the absolute despair that someone had felt in that room.

An acquaintance of mine killed herself and was found by her young children 20 years ago and I still feel uncomfortable when I walk past her house. Two other families have lived there since, and I know it's illogical of me. I'm not remotely woo or highly emotional, but the house continues to have an air of despair to me - both hers and the anguish of her children.

Wouldn't bother me.
This will sound weird but I used to have this dream that we viewed a massive country house that someone was murdered in and as such noone was interested & we bought it for like £10k, cleaned the floor & lived happily :D

I moved into a flat that the previous occupant had been murdered in,was very happy there.

Wouldn’t bother me at all, any old house (and lots of newer ones) are going to have seen their share of births and deaths. People die, and dying in your bed at home is better than on a busy hospital ward.

Yes, same as last post above. Or should my kids burn it down when I die?

I'm a community nurse our service supports people to die at home where they want to be with loved ones. As such we go to old houses, new houses, flats, caravans...where people are living they will also die.

If the house is good go for it, the next one you look at may have had 2,3 or 4 people die there but you will never know!

It wouldn't bother me at all OP. I prefer old to new houses and am sure that will mean they have seen their fair share of sadness and death as well as joy and life.

However, we are all different and if it bothers you then maybe you'd be best not trying to buy this house.

If you're not sure then maybe ask yourself how you'd feel if someone else had an offer accepted and you missed out on the house.

I can see why the medical bed and other supplies still being there might be off-putting.

All the probate sales I've known had already removed those, but they also all involved family members who did that work -- some places need to be chased up a bit on that. It's possible there isn't anyone doing that chasing here which would make me concerned the probate might drag on.

Someone dying normally in a house (not a violent death) wouldn't bother, in fact the signs of old age hand rails, signs where the stairlift and emergency intercom systems were, adapted bathroom in my current home were a comfort when we were buying. It was kinda a 'someone loved this place to live here as long as possible, with people who helped put in all these things, maybe we could too' sort of thing.

OP, DH and I offered on a house we saw last year where similarly a hospital bed and all the clothes, medicines, wheelchair etc of an elderly man were still there untouched — I gathered from what the estate agent didn’t say that the house had been inherited by three warring adult siblings who lived in three different countries and had been fighting over the inheritance since the will was read. I imagine that, especially as they all lived abroad, they couldn’t agree on clearing the house and storing or disposing of its contents, hence the disarray.

And because it was a big, (potentially) beautiful, riverside house in a prestigious area — though very battered and needed hundreds of thousands of pounds of work — presumably the estate agents just went along with it.

We ended up walking away because the three sellers couldn’t even agree on our offer.

But our current house had a notorious murder during the war of independence committed right on our first floor landing.

I have been put off by a coroner's report I found on the internet where a single mother accidentally smothered her child when co-sleeping. She'd bought her into bed because she had a cold. It was a long time ago but she was a single parent with one daughter. That was my situation and it just felt too sad. It wasn't the deal-breaker, but it cast a shade on the purchase, I knew it would play on my mind.

Other than that, have cheerfully lived in houses where many people must have died. But they were nameless and their circumstances unrecorded.

@GloriousMystery

OP, DH and I offered on a house we saw last year where similarly a hospital bed and all the clothes, medicines, wheelchair etc of an elderly man were still there untouched — I gathered from what the estate agent didn’t say that the house had been inherited by three warring adult siblings who lived in three different countries and had been fighting over the inheritance since the will was read. I imagine that, especially as they all lived abroad, they couldn’t agree on clearing the house and storing or disposing of its contents, hence the disarray.

And because it was a big, (potentially) beautiful, riverside house in a prestigious area — though very battered and needed hundreds of thousands of pounds of work — presumably the estate agents just went along with it.

We ended up walking away because the three sellers couldn’t even agree on our offer.

But our current house had a notorious murder during the war of independence committed right on our first floor landing.

Ah, good points. I don't know anything about the heirs but that might be something to follow up with the estate agent.

Lots of very sad stories here and you're all obviously made of much tougher stuff than me!

I definitely am a bit over-emotional, I admit it!

I lived in a shared house where someone committed suicide - during my stay there. Before we got a new person in, I went and slept in that room so that when thru arrived, it wasn't the case that the very last person to be in there had died.

It was a slightly odd feeling when I settled down for the night, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Actually death is such a small part of someone's life - hopefully at worst a short illness following a full life. I would hope that there were lots of happy times in that house for the person.

I would feel differently if it had been a violent death (murder/suicide) I think.

I once had a similar experience of house-viewing. It really put me off. I realized later I'd missed out on a real corker of a house. The house sold again a few years later for a much higher price. So I think you should go for it!

Wouldn’t bother and doesn’t me at all. I inherited the house I live in from my mother. She died in the master bedroom which is now my bedroom.

It wouldn't bother me. The important bit is that the house had life and a soul and it will again when you move in!

We brought a probate sale, the owner had passed away in it. Not something that would worry me at all. It was her home. The property is fairly old so their may have been other occupants die here, who knows. Odd to worry about a natural death in a property, part of life.

Our house is several centuries old - goodness knows how many people have been born and have died within its walls.

The whole place has a lovely feel to it - it's got a friendly, accommodating vibe.