by guest author Rebekah Maxwell
Haunted house law is trickier (or treatier?) than you might expect.
For instance, while a broker has no duty to disclose that a house is reputed to be haunted, once an owner has reported hauntings of the property in the public media, she is estopped from denying that the ghosts exist, and a buyer may be able to rescind the contract. Stambovsky v. Ackley, 572 N.Y.S.2d 672 (1991).
And yet, a deed obtained through misrepresentation that a house is haunted might be allowed to stand. Souza v. Soares, 22 Haw. 17 (1914).
Also, the fact that you believe a house to be haunted doesn’t give you a pass for vandalizing it. Hayward v. Carraway, 180 So.2d 758 (1965). Ghosts have feelings, too.