House where previous owner died in a fire

[UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername]

We have a viewing of a very interesting property next week, but there's a lot of smoke damage and a hole in the roof from a fire in which the owner died. Obviously if we bought it, the first step in the renovations would be professional cleaning.

I'm not overly bothered by it myself, I don't think, but we have 14 and 12 year olds and I'm worried about it from that perspective. Am I mad to even consider it?

I would definitely not buy it.

I'm living happily in a probate 400 year old house, we know the last two owners died in the house, I feel it's just part of life and part of owning a home.

My DS on the other hand are totally unaware of this information. I didn't feel it was really something I wanted them to worry about.

It’s not that house. Equally notorious.

Surely at that age you wouldn't have been told the full circumstances of his death tho?

Does anyone know...do people renting have to be told history of whether something awful happened in a house? I'm guessing not, that the landlords/letting agents/councils don't have to disclose it?

Maybe it was under insured? There is a house near me that was fire damaged long before we moved to the area (circa 10 years ago), it was under insured and there has been a huge battle to get any works carried out so it has sat, under tarpaulins for years while the wrangling has gone on.

The housing crisis would be even worse if we all refused to live in houses where people had died.

My house is about 100 years old, I don’t know if someone died here. It wouldn’t worry me anyway.

I wouldn't care about this now as an adult but as a child I would have been absolutely terrified to live in a house where that had happened. I think I'd be really really cautious about it if you think your kids will find out the history of the house.

That's chilling. I had a similar experience. Grew up in a townhouse which always felt creepy. I often dreamt of a small kid crawling around, all disheveled.
Later learned that a mother had left her children, and a fire had caused them all to die there.

Mortgage companies won’t touch it

Wouldn't put me off that someone had died there.. most homes have or will have deaths and serious incidents occur in them... but like a previous poster said, I'd worry about the damp / water damage.

I assume the house needs total renovation after the fire? So if you’ll do the renovation before moving in it should be fine unless your kids are very very sensitive.
I wouldn’t mention the death on the viewing stage anyway, only the fire.

I don’t think I could live there. Not for woo reasons, but because I’d probably not be able to forget what happened to that poor person.

Do your kids have to know there was a death? Even at 12/14 I would have hated the idea of that.

I'd be fairly certain they'd find out at some stage; it's not a big town and kids talk.

Maybe the first thing you do should be fixing the hole in the roof...

Although Cranley Gardens was and still is a third floor flat rather than a house.

Someone, somewhere in the past will have died almost everywhere we go. Nothing to worry about and worth a look.

Any property particularly an older one could have had someone die there and I'm OK with that.

But there's something particularly awful about dying in a house fire as it involves the house itself and that would give me bad vibes - irrational I know.

This is a ridiculous hysterical response.

OP it wouldn't bother me at all, lots of people will have had someone die in them, however a precious poster's comment about water damage from the fire hoses is worth checking out.

Mum told us that the man had hung himself - and no, it wasn’t the landlord who told us, it was a friend who knew the family. I don’t think Mum knew when she rented it, I think we only found out after moving in.

Normally pretty dispassionate, but would not like this, thinking of the struggles the previous owner might have had there. Too good an imagination I guess.

For me it would be a no.

Sounds brazen but the cost of renovating would put me off over the death.
Although if kids died it would be more upsetting.

omg that’s really sad and also terrifying!

The smell of smoke is the worst thing. And it’s hard to get rid of.

People die in houses. My house is 250 years old- I expect someone has died there.

I wouldn’t really tolerate your DCs trying to get worked up about it. It’d be teenage overreaction and not good character formation - I’d be nipping it in the bud if they started.